SINGAPORE: 22-year-old man was convicted on Thursday (Jan 15) by the High Court of raping his younger cousin at his home when he was a teenager.
The assaults took place between 2016 and 2018, when the perpetrator was between 12 and 15 years old and his victim between eight and 10 years old.
The man, who denied all the allegations, went on trial in May 2025 on three charges.
On Jan 15, he was convicted of one count of rape and one count of sexual assault by penetration.
In a written judgment, Justice Valerie Thean found the victim’s testimony on these two charges to be unusually convincing.
On the other hand, the man’s evidence was not credible, said the judge.
The judge acquitted him of the third charge of rape because the victim could not give sufficient details about a specific incident.
Justice Thean said: “While I accept she was a truthful witness, I am concerned with the sufficiency of detail on (the charge). I find it unsafe to hold that the prosecution has met its burden of proof on this charge.”
From the time the victim was two months old, she was cared for by her grandmother on weekdays at the home of her aunt, the perpetrator’s mother.
The victim’s mother and the perpetrator’s mother are sisters.
The girl, her two younger brothers and their domestic worker were left at her aunt’s house in the day, and her parents would take them home each evening.
During the trial, her parents were called as prosecution witnesses, while the perpetrator’s parents and older brother were called as defence witnesses.
All the incidents were alleged to have taken place in the master bedroom on the third floor of the house.
The victim testified that she was sexually assaulted about once a week since 2013, when she was six.
She said while she did her homework in the master bedroom, her cousin would come into the room and carry her to the bed.
She said he would lock the door and draw the curtains before performing various penetrative sexual acts on her under the blanket.
He told her that these acts were good for her and not to tell anyone about them, she said.
They could see whether someone was approaching the room because a monitor in the room displayed the feed of a closed-circuit television camera overlooking the staircase.
Between 2016 and 2017, the victim told the domestic helper that her cousin had touched her without giving specifics. The helper asked her to tell her aunt.
The complaint prompted a family meeting, where the girl cried and gestured at herself from her waist to her thigh when asked what happened.
Her father asked for the CCTV footage but was told by her aunt that it was not functional.
After this meeting, the girl was told to remain on the first floor.
She eventually decided to return to the master bedroom because she was getting bitten by mosquitoes on the first floor.
The sexual acts became more frequent, and she told her new helper that her cousin had touched her.
A second family meeting was held, during which the perpetrator’s parents accused her of lying while her father confronted the boy.
After this meeting, it was agreed that the girl and her siblings would go home after school instead.
She said she realised that what her cousin had done to her was wrong at some point between the last year of primary school and her first year in secondary school.
She had read a news article about a rape case, and when the events detailed were similar to her childhood experience, she researched “rape” online.
When her mother came across her online search history, the girl confirmed that it was related to her experiences with her cousin.
In September 2020, she told a close friend about the sexual assaults.
She also decided to confide to her mother in greater detail, after which the woman told her husband.
The victim’s parents testified that this was the first time they realised the true extent and nature of the sexual acts committed on her.
They encouraged her to lodge a police report. She was initially reluctant to do so as she was worried this would ruin the relationship between two families.
On Jan 3, 2021, following reassurance from her father, she went with her parents to lodge a report.
The perpetrator, who was represented by Wendell Wong, will be sentenced at a later date. - The Straits Times/ANN
