Company director, 47, pleads guilty to sexually abusing girl, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper
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Company director, 47, pleads guilty to sexually abusing girl

This article is more than 12 months old

A company director, now 47, admitted in the High Court yesterday that he had sexually abused a young girl - the former girlfriend of his younger son - over a period of 1½ years, when she was between 11 and 13 years old.

The man was assessing his son's Facebook account in December 2012 to find out why the boy looked moody, when he found naked pictures of the girl, who knew his son through competitive swimming.

The Primary 5 girl had sent the images via private messages after the Primary 6 boy asked for them, the court heard. The parties cannot be named due to a gag order.

The man phoned the girl to meet up, claiming he wanted to talk about her break-up with his son. He then drove her to the Copthorne King's Hotel and raped her in a room he had booked.

Despite initial anger over the rape, the girl grew to like the man, who told her he loved her, encouraged her when she doubted her swimming talent and showed concern for her.

She continued meeting him for consensual sexual acts in carparks, hotels and the rooftop of her condominium.

The man also took pictures of their sex acts with his mobile phone and asked her to send him pictures of herself in sexually provocative poses based on his directions.

In February 2014, she wanted to end the affair after getting into a relationship with a teenage boy, but the man refused to break up with her.

Using prepaid SIM cards, he posed as mysterious men and sent her messages threatening to post her naked pictures online. Unaware that he was responsible for the messages, she turned to him for help.

The man also used one of these numbers to contact the girl's new boyfriend, telling the boy to stay away from her.

His choice of a WhatsApp profile picture for this number - a naked image of her - eventually led to his undoing.

On July 4, 2014, a parent in the same social circle saw the profile picture in a chat window on his daughter's phone, and recognised the victim. It is unclear why the accused had contacted this girl. The parent then informed the victim's mother and older sister.

That night, questioned by her older sister, the victim broke down and told her about the man. The sister took her to lodge a police report.

Yesterday, the man pleaded guilty to two charges of statutory rape and one charge of sexual penetration of a minor. Fourteen other charges will be considered when he is sentenced.

The defence is relying on a psychiatric report for mitigation, but the prosecution does not accept some parts of the report.

A further hearing to hear psychiatric evidence from both sides will be held before the court determines the sentence.

COURT & CRIME