Man gets jail for molesting friend's sister when she was aged 7 to 9 years
The girl kept the molestation to herself for more than a decade until she grew up and her boyfriend asked her why she would panic or ask him to stop during acts of physical intimacy.
A view of the entrance to the State Courts building. (File photo: CNA)
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SINGAPORE: A 33-year-old man was on Monday (Apr 27) sentenced to jail for molesting his friend's sister over a decade ago, when she was seven to nine years old and he was 19 to 21.
Melvinder Singh Gurmit Singh, 33, had contested two counts of molestation, claiming among other things that the girl had kissed him consensually and that she was taking revenge on him.
The court convicted Singh and sentenced him to 19 months' jail.
The girl had not disclosed the offences earlier as she felt nobody would believe her, but said the molestation impacted her ability to give and receive physical affection.
She finally lodged a police report in March 2023 after revealing the molestation to her mother and boyfriend when they separately questioned her.
THE CASE
The victim testified that after she turned eight, which she remembered because she had received a much-desired backpack from her mother as a gift, Singh began kissing her on her lips in her oldest brother's room.
She said she saw Singh as one of her older brothers. He had free access to the family home even when his friend, the victim's brother, and the victim's parents were not home.
The prosecution's case was that Singh kissed the victim multiple times before taking her to a clubhouse in 2012 or 2013 where he molested her and placed her hand on his private parts.
In the clubhouse incident, the victim testified that she was swimming with her brothers and Singh next to the clubhouse when she was about nine years old.
When her brothers were not paying attention, Singh took her to the clubhouse and molested her. The victim said she was in a "state of shock" because she saw Singh as an older brother and she had never encountered "similar touching" with her own brothers.
She testified that she did not think her family would believe her, given their close relationship with Singh.
The victim became afraid of male family members and her aversion to physical closeness later extended to her boyfriend.
She confided in her boyfriend in 2021 about being molested when she was younger when he asked her why she would panic or ask him to stop during acts of physical intimacy.
Two years after this, when the victim's mother asked her about sleeping arrangements on a trip with her boyfriend and whether they were having sex, the victim said she was not comfortable talking about it. After being pressed, she disclosed that she had been molested by Singh when she was younger.
The victim's mother brought up the idea of making a police report and the victim did so in March 2023.
DEFENCE
Singh was represented by Mr Sanjiv Vaswani. He did not dispute that Singh had kissed the victim multiple times, but said it was consensual.
He said they had talked about kissing and that the victim had initiated some of the kisses.
He denied the clubhouse incident and gave three reasons why the victim would fabricate allegations against him.
First, the victim wanted her mother's permission to go overseas with her boyfriend. Second, she wished, or was instigated by her mother, to take revenge on Singh for his involvement in her parents' divorce.
Third, the victim's mother was jealous of Singh after learning he was married and had a child.
At trial, Singh confirmed that he was abandoning the revenge and jealousy motives. His eventual position was that the victim had fabricated allegations to support her claim that she had intimacy issues and would not have sex with her boyfriend so that she could travel with him. As her mother then told her that she either had to go to therapy or make a police report, she then panicked.
The prosecution said the theories raised by the defence were illogical and entirely unfounded on the evidence.
They sought 20 to 22 months' jail for Singh, saying he had exploited a young victim and abused the trust placed in him by the victim and her family members.
Singh will be appealing against his conviction and sentence.
For each count of molestation of a minor, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or given any combination of these punishments.
