SINGAPORE: The vice-principal and executive director of a pre-school who covered up the molestation of a two-year-old girl by the school’s cook were jailed for three months and two weeks, and four months, respectively.
During sentencing on Monday (Jan 19), District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz said the two women were supposed to act as protectors of the children and to shield them from harm.
Instead, their involvement in deleting CCTV footage of the sexual assault showed profound betrayal in the trust that society had in them to protect these vulnerable children, added the judge.
“The egregious nature of their acts cannot be understated,” said the judge, adding that the footage was important as the children could neither articulate their experiences nor give testimony to what was done to them.
The principal, 62, who was convicted of intentionally omitting information on the sexual assault, is expected to be sentenced in March.
The three women had pleaded guilty on Dec 19, 2025, to covering up the crimes of Teo Guan Huat, 61.
The trio, who belonged to the pre-school’s senior management, and the pre-school cannot be named due to a gag order imposed by the court.
On Nov 10, 2025, Teo was sentenced to nine years, four months and seven weeks in jail for molesting three girls, aged between one and two years old, while they were in a nap room at the pre-school.
Teo, a Malaysian and a Singapore permanent resident, had inserted his hands into their nappies multiple times a week from May to November 2023 when the teachers were not looking.
Teo, who had been with the pre-school for about a year, resigned in November that year when his offences were exposed.
The vice-principal, 49, was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice for deleting video footage of the assault.
The executive director, 59, had admitted to conspiring with the vice-principal to obstruct the course of justice by deleting the footage.
Another woman, 66, was given a stern warning and granted a discharge amounting to an acquittal in July 2025.
The vice-principal first discovered Teo’s sexual acts against one of the toddlers, then aged two, when she was reviewing the CCTV footage for an unrelated matter on Nov 16, 2023.
The principal and the executive director were then overseas attending a course on protecting children from abuse. The vice-principal sent the footage to the two women via WhatsApp, and they had a video call to discuss what to do.
After the call, the vice-principal instructed Teo not to go near the children.
The three women met again on Nov 21 that year and decided to inform the chairwoman of the school’s management committee.
In a meeting the next day, the vice-principal used her phone to show the CCTV footage and asked the chairwoman if they should make a police report.
Instead of immediately alerting the authorities, the senior managers gave reasons why they should cover up Teo’s crimes.
The executive director said the pre-school would be implicated if they alerted the police as the parents and the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) would have to be informed.
She said the two-year-old victim was asleep and might not have been affected by Teo’s actions, and suggested that they settle the matter quietly by asking Teo to resign.
When the chairwoman asked if the victim’s parents should be informed, the executive director said the school had to manage their reactions if they were told. She said the school’s name would be tarnished, and many parents would withdraw their children from the school.
The vice-principal said the impact on the victim and parents would be worse if they went to the police. She said that if she were the mother of the victim, she would rather not know what Teo had done to the child.
On Nov 23, 2023, the chairwoman said she had decided not to report the matter to the police. She would dismiss Teo and consider the case closed.
A day later, the chairwoman had another discussion with the leaders of the school management committee, changed her mind and decided to make a police report.
The trio decided to resign, as they feared they would not be able to cope with the fallout.
Two days later, the three met in the office to print their resignation letters. The executive director and vice-principal tried to convince the principal to delete the CCTV footage.
Acting on orders from the executive director, the vice-principal reformatted the hard disks of the CCTV system.
The chairwoman made a police report on Dec 2, 2023, and Teo was arrested two days later.
Police officers raided the pre-school that day, and found that all three hard disks of the CCTV system had been reformatted. But the police forensic team managed to retrieve the footage of Teo’s offences.
In May 2024, ECDA imposed S$26,200 in financial penalties on the pre-school and restricted the enrolment of new pupils there for compromising children’s safety.
ECDA also took action against four management staff members, including banning three of them from working in the pre-school sector, and directing the pre-school to submit a corrective action plan to ensure children’s safety.
When Teo pleaded guilty, the prosecution said that although he was employed as a cook at the pre-school, he would often escort the children for their shower, set up their bedding and pat them to sleep.
These were not duties he had been hired for, said the prosecution, calling the case one of the most horrendous acts of sexual abuse committed in a pre-school here.
On Nov 6, 2025, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli said in a written parliamentary reply that ECDA will be using artificial intelligence to improve the way CCTV footage is reviewed during investigations into suspected misconduct at pre-schools.
CCTV cameras were made mandatory in all pre-schools and government-funded early intervention centres from July 2024. - The Straits Times/ANN
