Home tutor pleads guilty to molesting girl after class

Home tutor pleads guilty to molesting girl after class

As her tuition teacher, he would tell her to stay back to complete her maths homework.

But instead of helping her with her sums, the man, who was more than three times the girl's age, molested her.

The 48-year-old Indonesian, who is also a Singapore permanent resident, cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, who was 15 at the time.

The mathematics tutor molested his student on multiple occasions from February to March last year.

The divorcee has been a tuition teacher for more than a decade, with about 40 students taking classes at his home.

Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to three charges of outrage of modesty, with two more charges taken into consideration.

The court heard that the man asked the Secondary 3 girl to stay behind in the classroom after her session in February last year. After the other students left, the man slid his hands down the girl's T-shirt and molested her for about 30 seconds.

Later that month, he again told her to stay behind to do her homework.

She was in her school uniform and he unbuttoned it before molesting her in a similar fashion.

It happened a third time on March 7 last year.

This time, the man lifted her T-shirt after molesting her.

The girl initially kept what happened to herself because she was afraid to speak up and did not know how to react.

The man's offences came to light after she confessed to a boy about what had happened, telling him that the teacher had become more brazen.

Her friend reported it to the girl's school authorities, which then contacted the girl's mother on March 11.

Her mother made a police report the next day.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Delicia Tan asked for a global sentence of 25 months' jail and six strokes of the cane, noting the man abused his position of trust, committing the offences over a period of more than a month. She said: "The prosecution notes he has shown remorse, but he molested the victim on numerous separate occasions."

The man's lawyer, Mr Chua Eng Hui, asked for no caning, or that a maximum of three strokes be given.

He added that his client has gone for counselling and is remorseful over his actions.

District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim convicted the man but adjourned sentencing, calling for a victim impact statement to be submitted before she would make a decision.

For each charge of outrage of modesty, the man may be jailed up to two years, or fined, or caned, or any combination of the three.

He will be back in court for sentencing on July 9.

This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.

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