Man admits to molesting his 13-year-old daughter
He had flexible working hours and would pick his older daughter up from school while her mother was at work.
But while they were alone at home, the 47-year-old permanent resident from the Philippines molested the girl, who was just 13 years old at the time, five times between 2016 and 2017.
The case was set to go on trial, but the man yesterday pleaded guilty to three counts of outraging his daughter's modesty.
Two other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing. The man cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the victim's identity.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Stephanie Koh told District Judge Ng Peng Hong that the man and the girl lived together with the girl's mother, her younger sister, who was four at the time, and a domestic helper.
Sometime in November 2016, the girl was lying down in the master bedroom alone and the man entered the room thinking she was asleep.
A few months earlier, he had touched the girl's private parts once before, and this time, he undressed her and molested her again. He stopped after a few minutes and left the room.
DPP Koh said: "The victim was actually awake and saw the accused's act but did not know what to do."
The man went on to molest his daughter three more times the following year.
But she did not tell her mother as she did not know how to break the news to her, said DPP Koh.
But after the incident on July 26, she decided to confide in her school counsellor the next day.
The counsellor alerted the Ministry of Social and Family Development's Child Protective Service, and the girl later made a police report.
She was removed from her parents' care, placed in Gracehaven home and then in the care of a foster family. At her mother's request, the girl was allowed to go to the Philippines to visit relatives in June 2018 and has not returned to Singapore.
The man is out on bail of $80,000 and will return to court tomorrow for sentencing.
For molesting a child under 14 years old, he can be jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or any combination of the three.
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