SINGAPORE - A rapist who beat his victim into submission as she returned home after celebrating her sister's birthday was sentenced to 12½ years behind bars on Tuesday.
Delivery man Abdul Razeef Abdul Majeed, 23, forced himself on the woman in a staircase landing during the brutal attack. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to jail and 14 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to aggravated rape.
The court heard he targeted the 37-year-old Filipina - who was in Singapore to visit her sister - as she returned from the birthday night out in April 2011.
First, he followed her into the lift of a Housing Board block in the Havelock Road area. Chilling surveillance footage played in court showed him suddenly hugging her, before punching her head and face when she pushed him away. When the lift door opened on the 7th floor, he told his victim not to be noisy or he would kill her.
She tried to run but Razeef grabbed her by the hair and led her to the staircase landing. He told her to take off her shorts, lie down and "make him happy". Razeef then raped her twice and forced her to perform a sex act on him. After he left the scene, she phoned her sister, who called the police. The victim identified Razeef after officers showed her a series of photographs.
He was arrested later that month after police raided his flat. Lawyer Shashi Nathan said Razeef had drunk beer that night as he was depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend and he had lost control when the Filipina pushed him away.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor Ramesh Ethan Ananda argued that the delivery man had carried out an opportunistic attack.
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