A 26-year-old man spiked his flatmate’s water with a drug and tried to rape her twice, being caught red handed on the 2nd occasion.
He was sentenced to 17 years in prison on 3 April, as well as 14 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to one charge of attempted aggravated rape, one charge of assault by penetration, one charge of making the victim take an intoxicating substance for him to carry out his crimes – he also had 4 other charges being considered for his sentencing.
He cannot be named because of a court order that protects the identity of the victim.
Background
The man and the victim knew each other and were platonic friends since 2015, attending the same university in Malaysia with his girlfriend.
The victim and the man then came to Singapore to work in May 2019 as front office executives in the same hotel and rented different rooms in the same flat, with the man’s girlfriend also joining them occasionally for meals and staying over.
In 2019 or early 2020, the man bought a bottle of the drug in liquid form for RM200 in WeChat, planning to use it to make the victim unconscious so that he could rape her.
The drug contained gamma-hydroxybutyrate, a date rape drug that caused sedation, euphoria and reduced inhibition.
He spiked the victim’s glass of water and offered it to her, and she then drank it; before violating her on her bed as she drifted in and out of consciousness later that night.
He tried to rape her but she suddenly sat up and told him to stop, and he replied that he didn’t do anything and left her bedroom as she fell back into unconsciousness.
The victim then found her panties on the floor the next morning but didn’t confront him because she can’t remember what exactly happened the night before.
She had trusted that the victim wouldn’t do anything harmful to her because of their close relationship.
On 29 March 2020, the man then offered the victim another cup of water that he spiked, but the victim secretly threw the water away and left the empty cup on the table to make it look like she had drunk it, because she was growing suspicious of him.
She then pretended to be asleep later that night when the man entered her room and shone a light on her face, climbing into her bed and trying to rape her.
She then grabbed his arms and confronted him, and he defended himself saying that he was just putting a blanket over her, before leaving the room.
She then continued confronting him over a series of text messages but the man maintained that he was innocent.
She initially considered not reporting him to the police because of their close friendship, but did so anyway for her own safety and the man was later arrested that morning.