18-year-old Lee Jian Ping pleaded guilty on 10 November to molesting an 11-year-old girl, less than a week after he started working in Singapore under a work permit.
He admitted to repeatedly touching the victim’s backside over her clothes at Jurong Point Shopping Centre on 19 June this year.
TODAY reported that Lee had entered Singapore on 20 May on a work permit, and was in the mall on 19 June on his way to the toilet when he noticed the victim and followed her.
The girl had just had a disagreement with her brother that evening while they were buying food at the shopping centre, and she walked home on her own.
Lee asked the victim to show him the way to the supermarket, and as they walked towards the shopping mall, Lee touched her backside 5 times with the back of his hand.
The little girl then tried to create some distance away from Lee.
When reaching the entrance of the mall, Lee asked her to follow him down a different path but the girl rejected him and walked into the mall instead.
Lee then asked her about where she lived, her school, her age, height and if she had a boyfriend.
The victim answered some of the questions as Lee then once again asked her to follow him, which the girl refused and said that she was waiting for her father.
The girl then returned home after Lee left, and told her father about what happened, and the father brought the girl back to confront Lee at his workplace, to which he then apologised after his work and said that he was only asking for directions.
His actions were caught on CCTV at the mall, and Lee said that he had “felt the urge to do” what he did.
Lee is currently held in remand for a week and will be sentenced at a later hearing.