Relief teacher jailed for sex with student

Relief teacher jailed for sex with student

SINGAPORE - After hearing that rumours were going round a school about a home economics teacher having an affair with a student, a 13-year-old girl made a confession.

She told a school counsellor that she had been having a sexual relationship with a relief teacher.

On Friday, Steven Lee Woon Leong Jr, 26, was jailed for two years and three months for performing five sexual acts on a child.

District Judge Toh Yung Cheong chided him for not knowing better. Lee held a diploma in counselling and had attended a course on managing teenagers in the Internet age. "You should also know about keeping a professional distance from your students," added the judge.

Lee, now jobless, got close to the girl by befriending her on Facebook and sending her text messages.

She agreed to be his girlfriend and they met up secretly after school at staircase landings of Housing Board flats in Paris Ris, Simei and Tampines.

He committed four sexual offences in March 2011 and the fifth in either May or June that year. On one occasion, he even took her to his Tampines flat where they had sex in his bedroom.

When rumours of their relationship surfaced, she told a school counsellor about the affair on Aug 4. Lee was arrested the next day.

Pleading for a lenient sentence, defence counsel Adrian Wee said that Lee had committed a grave error of judgement.

The court ordered that the victim not be identified. For having sex with the victim, Lee, a bachelor, could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

khush@sph.com.sg


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