Teen rapist jailed for raping ex-girlfriend, cousin

In 2015, a 17-year-old youth raped his former girlfriend and boasted about it to his friends.

About a year later, while out on bail after his arrest for the earlier offence, he raped a female relative, who was 16 at the time.

Describing the attacks as serious and heinous, District Judge Eddy Tham yesterday sentenced the accused to six years, nine months and two weeks in jail, and six strokes of the cane.

The accused, a full-time national serviceman who will turn 21 on Sunday, pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and one of affray last month. Seven other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

He cannot be named to protect his victims' identities.

The court heard that he and his first victim were in a relationship in secondary school, but they later broke up.

In November 2015, the accused showed up at a coffee shop and quarrelled with the victim, who was having dinner with her friends.

Afterwards, he offered to take her home, and they went to his flat nearby to pick up his electric bicycle.

They ended up in his bedroom, where he raped her on his bed while his family was having dinner in the living room.

The girl, who was also 17 at the time, struggled and pleaded for him to stop, but he ignored her. When she fell off the bed in her bid to break free, he pushed her back on the bed, continued raping her and told her he wanted to make her pregnant.

When she said she wanted to go home, he made her kneel in front of him for five minutes.

They then had a scuffle, causing the victim to scream and bruise her head.

The man's father opened the door to ask what was going on. The accused and the victim, who was lying on the floor, kept silent. When his friends came over later, he announced in his former girlfriend's presence that he had raped her.

After he eventually allowed her to leave, she met her mother to report the rape to the police.

2016 INCIDENT

In 2016, the accused and his cousin started talking about their sexual experiences after she posted about her boyfriend on social media.

In October that year, they met in an unoccupied flat owned by his family. When they were chatting in a bedroom, he pushed her onto her back and took off her clothes.

She pushed him away and repeatedly told him they were cousins and she had a boyfriend. But he said he did not care and forcibly raped her.

Afterwards, he made her promise not to report the rape as he was under investigation for his first rape.

He also made her delete all the text messages between them. She subsequently made a police report.

Defence lawyer Wee Pan Lee called for his client to be sentenced to reformative training instead of a jail term.

He argued that as a young offender, his client would benefit from reformative training as it strikes a "good balance" in deterring and rehabilitating him.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mansoor Amir said deterrence overweighs rehabilitation in this case as he called for a sentence of at least seven years' jail and six strokes of the cane.

"Among other things, the offence is serious and the offender is hardened and recalcitrant," he said, adding the accused is clearly unremorseful.

Agreeing, Judge Tham said the only real mitigating factors are the accused's youth and guilty plea, which pale in comparison to the harm done to his two victims.

He noted that the man showed no remorse after the first rape and went on to commit the same crime against another victim, who was even younger.

He also said the man knew what he did was wrong and still "had the presence of mind" to make his cousin delete the messages between them.

While noting positive points in the reformative training suitability report, he said reformative training would be "glaringly inadequate" in this case.

Mr Wee told the court that his client intended to appeal against the sentence.

Judge Tham doubled the man's bail to $20,000 pending the appeal. For each count of rape, the man could have been jailed for up to 20 years, fined and/or caned.