Paedophile who molested goddaughter gets jail, caning
When a man's girlfriend found naked photos of his five-year-old goddaughter on his laptop, she told the victim's parents.
But they did not believe her. It was only when she sent them the photos that they became furious and confronted the accused.
He then begged the victim's father not to report him, and wanting to protect his daughter's privacy, the father agreed.
But the girlfriend lodged a report against her boyfriend.
Yesterday, the hearing-impaired man was jailed for five years.
The 36-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the victim, was also given six strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to one charge of molesting the girl and another of sexually exploiting her.
The accused was entrusted with the care of the child by her father and would pick her up from school every day.
In 2015, after picking her up from school, he took her shopping at Toa Payoh Hub.
He took her into a handicapped toilet there as he needed to urinate but became sexually aroused in the cubicle.
He made her strip and took photos of her naked on the toilet bowl, capturing her full body and face.
He then molested the girl, and took close-up photos of her private parts while touching them.
The accused also performed a sex act on himself in the cubicle in front of the girl.
In May 2017, the accused man's girlfriend found the photos on his laptop.
When the girl's father decided not to report the man, she lodged a police report against him.
He then deleted the photos and discarded the hard disk.
Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng told the court it was an egregious abuse of trust by the accused, who was diagnosed with paedophilic disorder.
He added the accused was previously convicted of performing an obscene act in public in 2015 after being aroused by two young girls.
A report by the Institute of Mental Health also said the accused had a 60 per cent chance of re-offending in the next 19 years.
DPP Ng said: "The accused must be put behind (bars) for the protection of the public."
District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim agreed with the prosecution, adding she could not ignore the high risk of re-offending cited in the report.
For molesting a child under the age of 14, the accused could have been jailed for up to five years, or fined, or caned, or given any combination of the three.
For sexual exploitation of the child, he could have been fined up to $10,000, or jailed for up to five years, or both.
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