Singapore jails elderly man who put Indonesian helper into a trance to rape, molest her
- Tan Jeck Tuang, 69, instructed the maid to ‘sleep’ before his sexual assaults, putting her in a depersonalised state of helplessness, the court heard
- He was blasted by the judge during sentencing for exploiting his ‘power and dominion’ over his domestic helper and using her ‘as a sexual plaything’
Singaporean man Tan Jeck Tuang then proceeded to outrage the woman’s modesty while she was conscious but unable to open her eyes or express resistance.
He would do so again several months later, sexually assaulting her after giving her the command to sleep, which put her into a state of helplessness that the prosecution called “a depersonalisation syndrome” – a persistent feeling of being detached from one’s body or mental processes.
You treated her as a sexual plaything for sexual gratification
In the High Court on Tuesday, Tan was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to one charge of rape and one charge of outraging modesty.
Six other charges including sexual assault were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The victim cannot be named due to a gag order imposed by the court to protect her identity.
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Slamming what Tan did as an abuse of his authority over the victim who stayed in his home, Justice Aedit Abdullah said Tan had “power and dominion” over the victim and used this to subject her to repeated abuse.
“You treated her as a sexual plaything for sexual gratification,” the judge said to Tan during sentencing.
The victim, an Indonesian national who was 45 at the time, had been working as a maid for Tan since August 2020.
The court heard that her main responsibility was to care for him after he was diagnosed with vascular dementia in June 2020.
On November 7 that year, Tan asked the victim to prepare food for him while he was in his room.
After finishing his meal, the victim came into his room to collect the plate from him. He then pulled her hand and said “sleep”.
Upon hearing this, Deputy Public Prosecutor Theong Li Han said that the victim “immediately felt weak, helpless and as if she was about to faint”.
When the victim collapsed, Tan dragged her to a bed, where he kissed her, lifted her shirt and molested her.
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While this was happening, the victim “was conscious and aware of what the accused was doing, but was unable to open her eyes or express resistance”, Theong said.
When she opened her eyes sometime later, she noticed a wet patch on her shirt.
But when she asked Tan what it was, he responded that it was “just water”. He then apologised and told her “I enjoy your body”. The victim left the room crying.
Court documents stated that she felt shameful and disgusted following the incident.
She even contemplated death to alleviate her suffering
Sometime between February and March in 2021, Tan asked the victim to check the fridge in the kitchen. He then approached her from behind, and again gave the “sleep” command.
As before, the victim immediately felt weak, helpless and as if she was about to faint.
As she fell, the man caught hold of her and dragged her to a dining chair. He sat down and positioned her body so that it leaned on his while she was standing.
Similar to the previous incident, she was conscious of what was happening but could not open her eyes or express resistance.
Tan then kissed her on the lips, lifted her shirt and molested her. He also made her perform a sex act on him.
About a month later, the victim attempted to leave the home with her belongings.
She said that she did not want to work for him any more. The man’s brother eventually called the police as she insisted on leaving.
When the police arrived, she told them that Tan had sexually assaulted her. He was arrested on the same day.
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Prosecutor Theong sought a sentence of at least 15 years’ imprisonment for the man, stating that the victim had suffered significant harm.
A report by the Institute of Mental Health showed that she developed major depression after the sexual assaults “to the point where she even contemplated death to alleviate her suffering”, Theong said.
The report also suggested that the victim was suffering from depersonalisation at the time, which resulted in her feeling weak and “appearing unconscious” to Tan when the assaults happened.
What he did was deplorable but certainly not the worst of his kind
At the time of offence, the victim was “in a vulnerable state due to the power gradient between her and the accused”, the report read.
“She was nonetheless in the same position as a victim who was actually unconscious since she was unable to open her eyes or express resistance,” Theong said.
She added that Tan had thus taken advantage of her in that state.
However, Tan’s lawyer, Teo Choo Kee of law firm CK Teo and Co, argued that a sentence of 15 years would be “crushing” as the man would turn 70 in two months’ time. “What he did was deplorable but certainly not the worst of his kind. He has been a law-abiding citizen all his life until this happened here,” Teo said.
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The defence counsel then asked for a lighter sentence of around 10 years.
While meting out Tan’s sentence, Justice Abdullah noted the “flagrant abuse” of authority over the victim, and that Tan had exploited the victim’s vulnerability as a domestic worker.
