'Systematically groomed and sexualised victim': Man accused of sexually abusing daughter since she was 4, raping her when she was 12
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PUBLISHED ONNovember 08, 2022 8:15 AMBySelina Lum
SINGAPORE - When his daughter was still in kindergarten, a man allegedly told her to commit an indecent act on him in the toilet, and when she was in Primary 3 or 4, he allegedly introduced the girl to pornography.
When she was between 10 and 12, he allegedly raped her and committed other penetrative sexual acts on her in different rooms in their home, the family car and a unit in an office building.
The 36-year-old man is contesting 13 charges of various sexual offences committed against his biological daughter between 2012 and 2019. The trial began on Tuesday in the High Court.
The charges comprised one count of aggravated statutory rape, 10 counts of aggravated sexual assault by penetration, one count of committing an indecent act with a child, and one count of exhibiting an obscene object to a young person.
He cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the identity of the girl, who is now 15 years old and estranged from her family.
Setting out its case against the man, the prosecution said in its opening address: “The evidence led in this trial will uncover, one ghastly detail after another, how the accused systematically groomed and sexualised the victim from a tender young age.”
Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo said the victim would be testifying in private, with a screen to shield her from seeing her father in the courtroom.
The prosecution said the girl will testify that some time in 2012 or 2013, the man instructed her to commit an indecent act while he was seated naked on the toilet bowl, and told her not to tell anyone about it.
In 2016 or 2017, the man taught her how to view pornography on his iPad and, as a result of this exposure, she grew increasingly curious and began to search for it on her own, said the prosecutors.
They said that in 2018 to 2019, he made her perform oral sex on him and sodomised her in and outside the family home.
The girl will testify that her father raped her in the master bedroom in August 2019, said the prosecutors.
The alleged assaults continued till Sept 11, 2019, when the man allegedly violated her with a sex aid.
Frustrated by the stress she felt about her studies and her family issues, along with her belief that she could never tell anyone about her father’s actions, the victim began cutting herself, said the prosecution.
Three of her friends will testify as to how the girl began confiding in them about the sexual abuse in 2019.
The prosecutors said the girl contemplated running away from home around end-August to September 2019. One of the friends will testify that she eventually confided in her mother about the victim’s abuse, and that the mother later alerted the school authorities.
The girl’s form teacher, principal and school counsellor will testify as to how they discovered the offences on Sept 13, 2019 and made a police report.
A doctor who examined the girl will testify about her diagnosis of chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease, and a vaginal infection.
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
