Judge dismisses rapist's appeal against conviction

The High Court on Wednesday dismissed the appeal of a rapist who argued that he could not have had sex with his 13-year-old victim because he suffers from erectile dysfunction.

Justice Lee Seiu Kin said that even if the 27-year-old did have the condition at the time of the 2006 offence, it would still have been possible for him to have sex.

The judge also said the victim's account of her ordeal was clear, consistent and had a flow to it, which would not have been possible had she made up a story, as the rapist had claimed.

Justice Lee dismissed the man's appeal against conviction and upheld his sentence of 11 years' jail and eight strokes of the cane. He allowed the man, who wanted to spend Deepavali with his family, to start his jail term next week.

The man has been out on bail since appealing against his 2011 conviction for raping his former girlfriend's younger sister in 2006. Then a 21-year-old full- time national serviceman, he had broken up with his girlfriend but continued to live with her family in their flat.

On Dec 28, 2006, he went into the victim's room and sexually assaulted her, making her promise on the Bible to marry him. She told her mother, who wanted to discuss the matter with her older daughter before calling the police.

The man, angered after the 13-year-old shunned his proposal, raped her while her mother was locked out of the flat. The man denied the rape, alleging that the family was trying to fix him up. In his appeal, his lawyers succeeded in introducing new medical evidence, showing that he suffers from erectile dysfunction.

Yesterday, Justice Lee concluded that even if the man had erectile dysfunction in 2006, he was still able to have sex with the help of his hands.

Justice Lee said he considered the possibility of a conspiracy but it would have involved too many people and the manufacture of physical evidence on the victim.

The judge added: "The complainant's evidence appears to come from someone who had lived through the events she had described."

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