SINGAPORE: A man was sentenced to eight years and nine months in jail and six strokes of the cane for raping a 13-year-old girl he met online.
On June 9, Kevin Tan Jia Hut, 28, pleaded guilty to one charge of rape. Three other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Tan was 25 when he committed the offence. The girl cannot be named due to a gag order to protect her identity.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Nicholas Wuan and Mavis Ng said Tan and the victim got to know each other in May 2023 via an online videoconferencing platform that anonymously pairs users for one-on-one video or text conversations.
The conversations between Tan and the victim soon took on a sexual nature, and they began talking on Telegram, where they spoke about meeting up to have sex.
In June 2023, the pair met at night at the staircase of an HDB block near the victim’s home, where she performed a sexual act on him.
The victim left soon after, telling Tan that she had to go because she had sneaked out of her house.
The next month, Tan was texting the victim on Telegram when she told him she wanted to have sex.
As Tan’s mother and sister were overseas at the time, Tan booked a taxi for her to come to his home.
After they had sex in Tan’s room, he booked her another taxi to return home and accompanied her downstairs.
Two days later, the victim’s mother lodged a police report stating that her daughter had just said that she had been raped.
It was not stated in court documents what made the victim tell her mother.
The victim later informed police that she had engaged in sexual acts with multiple men. Through investigations, the police ascertained that Tan was one of those men and arrested him on Aug 10, 2023.
The prosecutors sought a jail term of nine to nine and a half years and six strokes of the cane, noting that what Tan did was “no youthful folly”.
“The sentence imposed must give proper expression to the foremost sentencing consideration of deterrence,” said the DPPs.
Those who have sex with a girl below the age of 14, with or without her consent, can be convicted of rape and be jailed for up to 20 years, fined or caned. - The Straits Times/ANN
