SINGAPORE: A man entered the home of a woman who had mild intellectual disability and schizophrenia and molested her.
Court documents stated that the victim could not protect herself from abuse due to her conditions, and she had also been assessed to lack the mental capacity to consent to sexual acts.
Zaini Ahat, 57, was caught after the woman’s brother checked his own phone and accessed an application linked to a CCTV camera outside the HDB flat. Through the footage, he saw the offender entering the flat.
On Thursday (Sept 10), Zaini was sentenced to one year, seven months and six weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to a molestation charge.
The court heard that through the application, the woman’s brother saw Zaini talking to the victim at the gate of her home before the offender entered the flat on the evening of Dec 10, 2025.
Zaini sat on a chair opposite the woman and she lifted her top.
Shortly before 8pm, he closed the front door, turned off the lights in the flat and molested her.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Khong Zi-Wei said: “Having witnessed this, the (brother) rushed... to the victim’s residence and shouted for the victim to open the door. The (brother) subsequently called the police for assistance.”
Police arrested Zaini later that evening.
On Sept 10, the DPP urged the court to sentence the offender to a year and seven months’ jail, with an additional six weeks behind bars in lieu of three strokes of the cane.
The prosecutor said: “The victim... could not differentiate between sexual, affectionate or caretaking forms of touch.
“She was therefore wholly unable to appreciate the nature of what was being done to her, let alone resist or object to it.”
For molestation, an offender can be jailed for up to six years, fined, caned or given any combination of these punishments.
Zaini, however, cannot be caned as he is over 50 years old. - The Straits Times/ANN
