Youth molested girl after being released from reformative training
A man who had recently been released from reformative training tailed a girl to her home before molesting her in the lift.
On Thursday last week, Irfan Ridhwan Irwan, 20, pleaded guilty to one charge of molest and other offences.
In July, while placed under a community-based rehabilitation programme, Irfan saw the victim, 18, from a distance.
The victim and her mother had just alighted from a bus after running errands.
As the victim was walking slowly and using her mobile phone, her mother walked back first, leaving the victim on her own.
Around the same time, Irfan was crossing the overhead bridge and saw the victim walking alone, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Joshua Foo.
He decided to follow her home to a block of flats in Jalan Bukit Merah.
At the lift lobby, the victim noticed that Irfan was standing behind her, but she was not suspicious of him at the time.
He then stood behind her when they were alone in the lift.
As the lift ascended, he suddenly hugged her from behind and told her to keep quiet, before molesting her.
She turned around and pushed him away, telling him not to touch her.
He tried to approach her again, but she moved away.
When the doors opened, he fled using the stairs.
The victim went home crying.
She told her parents what had happened, and her father looked for Irfan before calling the police.
In her victim impact statement read out in court, she said she kept thinking about the incident days after it had happened.
She added that she did not dare go out on her own for two weeks, and her father had to fetch her home after work.
She now no longer takes the lift alone with strangers.
The day before he molested her, Irfan had also used a pair of scissors to cut off the prison tag attached to his ankle and threw it into a dustbin.
He was instructed to report to Lloyd Leas Community Supervision Centre two days later but failed to do so.
He is expected to be sentenced on Nov 21.
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