Man jailed for violating three sisters enrolled in wife's playhouse
Victims attended playhouse run by wife of paedophile with previous molest conviction
A man who was convicted in 1999 of molesting his tuition student went on to violate a family friend's three daughters years later.
Yesterday, the 65-year-old man, who cannot be named, to protect the identity of his victims, was jailed for 26 months and eight weeks.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of molest and one charge of committing an indecent act with a child.
The man's wife ran a playhouse in Bedok that conducts enrichment programmes for children with learning difficulties.
The man, who has been diagnosed with paedophilia disorder, would help out by conducting some of the enrichment classes and also took the children around in his van.
In 2003 and 2004, the victims' mother noticed her second child had some learning difficulties.
She decided to enrol the girl, who was about five at the time, in the playhouse as it was run by a family friend.
She then enrolled her other two daughters there as well.
As the two families knew each other, the three girls were allowed to go up to the couple's home on the second storey above the playhouse, Deputy Public Prosecutor Marshall Lim told District Judge Christopher Goh.
On one occasion in 2007 or 2008, the youngest child, who was about six years old, needed to go to the toilet. The man took her to the toilet upstairs and performed a sex act on her.
Between 2006 and 2008, he also took the second child, who was seven to nine years old, to a quiet area where he put her hand into his pants and instructed her to perform a sex act on him.
Sometime between 2004 and 2006, he took the oldest girl, who was eight to 10 years old, to his home and touched her bare chest.
DECADE
The offences came to light only more than a decade later, in April 2017, when two of the victims, now 18 and 20, were taking tuition classes.
After their tutor noticed that the older victim was troubled, she revealed that she had been violated by the man when she was younger.
Her younger sister was shocked because she had similar experiences.
The following month, the three sisters made a police report.
The man had been jailed 10 months and given three strokes of the cane for molesting his seven-year-old student in 1996.
DPP Lim called for at least 26 months' jail and an additional 12 weeks' jail in lieu of caning as the man is above 50 years old.
Describing sexual assault as a "pernicious evil that must be stamped out", especially when the victims are children, he noted that the man's offences bore striking similarities.
"The accused had preyed on young females under his charge, exploited their youth and (abused) his position of authority," DPP Lim said.
"The fact that he had re-offended, and had escalated to molesting more victims demonstrate that a stiff sentence is necessary to address his predilections."
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