Man rapes long-lost daughter who initiated meeting

A young woman who grew up without her biological father because he was incarcerated for drug-related offences made the move to get to know him.

But during their fourth meeting, the man raped his 20-year-old daughter.

On Sept 27, the 47-year-old man was sentenced to 16 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane by the High Court after he pleaded guilty to a charge of rape, a charge of drug possession and a charge of drug consumption.

Another five drug-related charges were taken into considering in sentencing.

The man also has to serve 753 days as enhanced punishment because these offences were committed while he was still under a remission order.

He cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the identity of the victim, who is now 23 years old.

Prosecutors told the High Court that the victim was raised by her maternal grandparents.

She had never met her biological father until 2019, as he was behind bars when she was born and throughout most of her childhood.

Between 2017 and 2019, the victim connected with her biological sister. She then decided to find out more about her father.

In 2019, she visited him twice in prison, along with her sister and uncle. 

The man was released on remission in March 2021.

In October 2021, the victim took her one-year-old son with her to her paternal grandmother’s flat, where her father lived. Nothing untoward occurred during this visit.

The fourth meeting took place on the afternoon of Nov 4, 2021.

The victim, who was with her son, agreed to meet her father and a relative at a cafe in East Coast Park.

She then followed her father back to his place, as she wanted to see her paternal grandmother.

In the flat, the victim told her grandmother that she was a single mother after the older woman asked her about the boy’s father. The grandmother then told her to refrain from telling the accused about this.

The man then asked what they were talking about, but they replied that there was nothing.

When the man told the victim that he wanted to meet the father of her son, she said that he was busy with work.

The man then told the victim to go to the bedroom as he wanted to talk to her, and she complied.

After the closing the door, he asked if she was hiding anything from him, but she said there was nothing.

He then said he had something to tell her and mumbled something. When the victim leaned forward to hear what he was saying, the man kissed her on the lips.

Shocked, she turned her head away, but he held on to her shoulders and kissed her again.

They ended up lying on the bed, where he raped her.

Prosecutors said the victim felt angry, disgusted and embarrassed at the time but did not know how to react. 

After the rape, the victim did not make a police report right away.

She was afraid that her entire family would find out about the incident, and also did not want to be the reason for her father to be sent back to prison.

On Feb 26, 2022, the victim got into an argument with her maternal grandparents and revealed that her father had had sex with her.

A group of the victim’s maternal relatives then went to the void deck of the man’s flat, intending to confront him, but they eventually called the police instead.

The man was arrested on March 1, 2022, and released on bail.

On Sept 6, 2022, officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau found drugs in the flat.

In his sentencing submissions, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Jia En said the man had abused the trust that the victim placed in him.

“The victim was always curious about who her father was, and when she was just getting to know her father, he committed a wholly unexpected and unspeakable offence against her,” said the prosecutor.

The prosecutor noted that despite having served lengthy jail terms for drug consumption, the man remained undeterred.

The man’s lawyer, Mr Lum Guo Rong from the Public Defender’s Office, said his client was very sorry for the wrongdoings had he committed against his daughter.