Singapore man jailed for a year for sexually abusing minor girl

The accused had unprotected sex with the victim, after his friend introduced them to each other.

Picture for representation
Picture for representation Reuters

Singapore jailed a 26-year-old man on Tuesday for sexually abusing a minor girl. The accused, identified as Desmond Lim Teck Wei, was jailed for 12 months after he admitted to two of three charges of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl at a Geylang house on March 11.

Lim, then working at an Internet LAN shop, had unprotected sex with the victim, after his friend introduced them to each other.

According to the Straits Times, deputy Public Prosecutor Joshua Lai told the court that the victim had a quarrel with her mother on March 10 and ran away from home. She stayed over with a female friend (18) for that night. The next day the victim called her teenage godbrother and said she wanted to spend the next night at his place.

The godbrother who was Lim's friend introduced him to the two girls.

That night after everyone slept in the godbrother's house, Lim and the victim cuddled up on a pull-out bed. Later they started hugging and kissing each other. After a while he inserted his hand into her shorts and penetrated her, she pushed his hand away. He stopped and continued to hug her. Sensing that she did not resist his physical advances on her, he went forward to have sexual intercourse with her.

Later that afternoon, the victim's aunt found out her and brought her to KK Women's and Children's Hospital. The hospital then alerted the police, according to the news webdite. Singapore police nabbed Lim on the same day when he was at his workplace.

It is also reported that Lim was charged on 19 July and was absconded from a pre-trial conference while on bail. An arrest warrant was issued and he was detained again on 5 October.

Sexually engaging with a minor person (below 16 years) is an offense in Singapore according to S376A, Penal Code and Lim could have been jailed for up to 10 years and/or fined on each charge.

Crimes against women seem to be on rise in Singapore. On 4 October, Singapore police arrested two men for taking advantage of an intellectually disabled woman and coaxing her to share nude photos which they uploaded on social media with humiliating comments.

Again, on 8 October, a former school teacher was jailed in the country for pursuing minor girls to send nude photographs and video to him.

The accused, identified as Kuang Liang Yong (47), used fake identities to coax minors to send indecent pictures of themselves to him. On 7 October he was sentenced to 22 months' jail and fined S$500 under the charges for procuring nude photos and stalking his victims.

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