A 43-year-old man who worked as a teacher in charge of a uniformed group in a primary school is facing five counts of molestation involving a then 11-year-old primary school boy from the CCA he was in.
The victim had approached him to confide about his family problems, with the court hearing on 13 June that the alleged offences took place in school back in 2017 and 2018.
The identity of the man and the school cannot be revealed due to a court order to protect the identity of the victim.
Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPPs) Lim Ying Min and Angela Ang said in court documents that the boy had joined the uniformed group CCA in 2016 and started confiding in the man about his family issues in 2017.
They said that the man was aware that the victim’s parents are divorced, and the boy was staying with his mother and stepfather.
He was also aware that the boy’s relationship with his stepfather wasn’t good, and the latter would beat him, resulting in the boy showing up to school with bruises on occasions.
The court documents stated that the teacher had allegedly touched the boy’s private parts over his shorts in a Heads of Department room in November 2017.
He also allegedly committed similar acts on the victim 4 more times from March 2018 to October 2018.
The victim then lodged a police report on 13 November 2018 about being molested and the teacher was then arrested on 8 July 2021, before being charged in court.
At the time of writing, the trial is still ongoing.
The teacher has also been suspended from duty since November 2018 when the police investigations began, according to the Ministry of Education in an earlier statement.