Ex-lecturer guilty of molests at school camp 20 years ago
He is convicted after being on the run in Malaysia for 17 years
It has been two decades since they were molested.
But yesterday, justice prevailed for five victims, after their molester, a former National University of Singapore (NUS) senior psychology lecturer, was convicted of his crimes.
Chan Cheng, 59, was found guilty of five counts of molestation after a trial, having been on the run in Malaysia for 17 years. Seven similar charges involving four boys are still pending.
The victims, who were then 13 and in Secondary 1, were molested by Chan at a school camp in June 1999. He was a consultant at the three-day camp held in the Guillemard Camp in Old Airport Road.
The court heard that during the camp, held from June 28 to 30 that year, Chan conducted certain segments and slept in the same bunk as the boys.
He molested them in the bunk and the shower by rubbing or touching their private parts on the pretext of a massage or teaching them personal hygiene.
The victims said they were shocked, embarrassed and scared.
The offences came to light only after a Sec 2 student leader, who was at the camp as a helper, went to the bunk to look for the other student leaders and Chan on the second night of the camp.
But when he entered the bunk just past midnight, he saw Chan sitting on the lower bed next to a boy and molesting him.
A few hours later, on the morning of the last day of camp, the student leader told a teacher, who was the camp commander, what he had seen.
The teacher interviewed the boy, who revealed Chan had also touched some other boys.
After speaking to the other boys as well, the teacher called the vice-principal of the school, who arrived with the operations manager and discreetly took the boys to Geylang Police Station to lodge a report.
Chan was arrested on Nov 27 that year, told to attend court two days later and released on bail. But he left Singapore for Malaysia and did not show up in court.
Chan remained there until he was extradited to Singapore on Dec 7, 2016. His contract with NUS was terminated.
PUNISHMENT SESSION
During the trial, Chan denied touching the boys and instead claimed he conducted a punishment session and a formal reflection activity during the camp.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor James Chew said no weight should be given to his claim, as it was an assertion that was inconsistent with the evidence.
Yesterday, DPP Chew asked for Chan's bail to be revoked, citing his history of absconding.
But Chan's lawyer Ramesh Tiwary told the court that Chan had turned up in court punctually for the last two years.
District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan allowed bail with an added condition that Chan must report to the investigation officer every day.
Chan is now out on bail of $60,000 and is due back in court next Monday.
For each count of molestation, offenders can be jailed for up to two years and fined or caned. But as Chan is over 50, he cannot be caned.
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