Man jailed, caned for molesting daughter
While his wife was overseas, a man molested his daughter, then nine, multiple times.
Yesterday, the 44-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the victim's identity, was jailed for 21 months and given three strokes of the cane.
The incident came to light after the victim's mother went to the Association of Women for Action and Research for help over marriage issues and revealed that her daughter had been molested by her husband.
The girl, 11, first informed her mother about the offences when they were walking home in August last year.
She said some boys at school had joked about male and female anatomies coming into contact, and that it was "something like daddy did to me".
Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Yong said before May last year, the man had taken his daughter home from her nanny's place.
He then went out for drinks with friends.
When he returned home, he went into the victim's room to take some clothes from the wardrobe and spotted her asleep on the bed.
AROUSED
He then lay down next to her and hugged her from behind.
Feeling sexually aroused, he lined his underwear with tissue paper and rubbed himself against her.
Court documents revealed that he did this twice more between May and September 2018, while his wife was overseas.
On each occasion, the girl was awoken by her father's actions. She kept quiet because she felt scared and did not tell her mother as she was afraid her parents would quarrel.
The man's lawyer, Mr T.M. Sinnadurai, said his client, who is an administrative assistant and a part-time tutor, did so due to a lapse in judgment and will now have a scar that will remain for the rest of his life.
Mr Sinnadurai also tendered a written mitigation from the man's wife, who said this is not "his true character" and their daughter still misses him even though they are now separated.
She added that he has been a kind and caring person in the 12 years she has known him, and she believes he will remain as a "good person till the end".
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