Cleaner jailed for molesting young stepdaughter
A cleaner has been jailed for molesting his young stepdaughter 15 times over almost two years after she turned down his repeated requests for sex.
The man, now 53, was sentenced to eight years and 38 weeks' jail yesterday. He pleaded guilty last week to five counts of outraging the girl's modesty. Ten other similar charges involving the girl were considered during sentencing.
The cleaner, who cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the girl's identity, committed the offences between January 2015 and August 2016.
He married the girl's mother in 2014 and the three of them lived in a one-room rental flat. The girl, then aged 11, was alone at home with him when he sexually abused her for the first time.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Chee Ee Ling said: "She sought permission from the accused to go to a playground but the accused asked the victim to have sex with him.
"The victim refused and the accused told her that she can't go to the playground to play if she refused to accede to his demands."
She was watching television when he hugged her tightly from behind and kissed her cheek and touched her chest.
The girl did not tell her mother about her ordeal as she felt thather mother would not believe her.
DPP Chee said: "It was only during a sex education class conducted by the victim's school on the last week of January 2017 that the victim realised the gravity and wrongness of the sexual assaults committed by the accused..."
The girl confided in a classmate before they alerted their form teacher, who notified the Ministry of Social and Family Development.
Police arrested the man on Feb 1 last year. He cannot be caned as he is over 50.
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