SINGAPORE: A 67-year-old man, who is serving a 24-month jail term for molesting his underaged niece, was on Monday sentenced to another 14 months for molesting his sister-in-law.
The man cannot be named to protect the victims' identities.
A district court heard that in 2011, the man's then 13-year-old niece reported to the police that she had been molested that same year.
During the course of investigations, her then 37-year-old aunt told the police that she had been molested by the man earlier, in 2005.
The prosecution proceeded on one charge and the man was convicted after a trial in September last year.
On Monday, the man pleaded guilty to the other charge which had been stood down.
The court heard that the woman in this case was admitted to hospital for migraine in late 2005.
At about 10am on Nov 29, the man insisted on massaging her on the hospital bed.
His wife, who is the woman's sister, was in the same room.
The man drew the curtain partially around his sister-in-law. He then put his hands under her hospital gown and massaged her entire body, beginning with her legs and moving up to her private parts and then to her breasts.
She was uncomfortable and embarrassed, but unable to resist or call out to her sister as she was drowsy and weak due to medication.
The victim did not tell her sister about what had happened, and her mother advised her not to jeopardise family ties by reporting the matter to the police.
Noting that his victim was hospitalised and in a "highly vulnerable state", Deputy Public Prosecutor Eunice Lau asked that a jail term in the range of 12 to 18 months be imposed on the man.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Sadhana Rai said he was remorseful and was committed to not massaging females again.
His intention in performing the "cultural" massage was to alleviate the victim's pain, the lawyer said. She asked for a jail term of between 9 and 12 months.
District Judge Liew Thiam Leng ordered that the man's 14 month jail term, which took effect from Monday, to run concurrently with his existing jail term. - TheStraitsTimes/ANN
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