Ex-CEO won’t be caned in Singapore for sexual assault on son’s 9-year-old friend at Halloween sleepover
- Former chief of multinational who was sentenced to 24 strokes and 14 years in jail last year is spared the cane due to back ailments
- The unnamed man molested and performed oral sex on the victim as his son slept in a bed below
The 49-year-old foreign national, who returned to the High Court in a wheelchair on Tuesday, was last year sentenced to 14 years’ jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane. He lost his appeal in August.
The man, who is serving his jail time and cannot be named to protect his victim’s identity, turns 50 next week. Offenders who are above 50 cannot be caned by law.
He had been found guilty of two counts of sexual assault by penetration of a minor, and another count of aggravated molestation, in relation to the incidents in October 2015.
The prosecution is seeking an additional year of imprisonment in lieu of caning, while the man’s lawyer Selva Kumara Naidu is asking for no extra prison time.
Naidu also told the court that his client wanted a mattress in his prison cell due to his medical conditions. But the prison medical officer said in an affidavit on Tuesday that while the mattress could be helpful, it was not “absolutely necessary”.
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Justice See Kee Oon gave the lawyer a month to file an affidavit from a doctor, and adjourned the matter to November 28.
Separately, the man still faces five charges of sexually abusing another eight-year-old boy in 2011. The case is pending before the courts.
The victim in the latest case had stayed over at the man’s home after trick-or-treating with his friend – the man’s son – on Halloween.
Shortly after the boys had gone to bed, the man entered his son’s room and molested the victim, who was sleeping in the upper bunk, then left and returned to perform oral sex on the boy. His son was sleeping in the lower bunk at the time.
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During the trial in the High Court, the boy testified that he had pretended to be asleep during the sexual assault.
When it was over, he packed up his belongings and called his father, who was watching a Rugby World Cup match at home. He told his father he was feeling unwell and asked to be picked up.
When the boy’s father arrived, the boy got in the car and told him what had happened. The father then confronted the man and his wife, before asking his son to repeat his allegations.
During his appeal in the top court, he argued that the boy’s evidence was not credible and he had a motive to make up the story – that is, to placate his father. The three judges who heard the appeal unanimously disagreed.
They also noted that the boy had “a good time” during Halloween, collected the most number of sweets among his friends, and had got along well with the man’s son, frequently going on playdates and sleepovers with him.
