Singapore man who preyed on disabled children jailed for record 45 years in ‘exceptionally sickening’ case

The 54-year-old, who cannot be named due to a court order imposed to protect the identities of his eight victims, pleaded guilty on Monday to six counts of aggravated rape. Another 80 charges – including sexual exploitation of a minor, molestation and attempted aggravated rape – were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Prosecutors told the court that the man committed his crimes over the span of 16 years, including from 2005 to 2018 when he worked as a part-time tutor to “gain access to a ready pool of children”.

He had previously volunteered as the chairman of a youth executive committee and helped to teach a cultural dance group, where he met the mother of two of his victims – a woman he later went on to date for some eight years, during which time he repeatedly assaulted her son and daughter.

Almost half the charges against the man – 38 in total – related to his abuse of a girl aged between six and nine who needed speech therapy. The court heard how he had claimed to be an educational therapist to win the trust of her family, but instead of helping the girl he sexually assaulted her multiple times over a period of three years. Some of the girl’s soft toys later tested positive for his semen.

Police were only alerted to the man’s crimes in 2018, after a woman bought his old laptop and discovered a cache of obscene photos and videos that were automatically downloaded onto the device from a cloud drive.