A 40-year-old man allowed a 20-year-old acquaintance, whom he had only known for a few weeks, to stay overnight at his place after a night of drinks together, before penetrating him while the latter was drunk in his bedroom, according to The Straits Times.
However, while the younger man was sleeping on the floor of the host’s bedroom, the 40-year-old man, Jeffrey Pe, assaulted him. The victim had to physically push Pe away to escape the assault.
In April, Pe, now 45 years old, was found guilty of three counts of assault by penetration after a trial that began in September 2022. On Monday (3 July), the High Court sentenced him to 10 years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane.
During the trial, Pe contested the charges, denying some of the acts and claiming that the victim had consented to others. He argued that the victim was open to exploring himself and had romantic interest in him.
However, Justice Mavis Chionh rejected Pe’s defense, concluding that the victim was heavily intoxicated from the night of drinking and incapable of giving consent to the acts.
Justice Chionh deemed Pe to be a dishonest witness, finding that his claims lacked supporting evidence. In contrast, she found the testimony of the younger man to be remarkably credible, particularly considering the emotional distress evident in the audio recordings of the calls he made to the police after the assault.
During the sentencing, Justice Chionh highlighted the harm caused to the victim, who had been diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder and showed possible symptoms of post-traumatic stress. This factor was considered aggravating in the case.
Pe is planning to appeal his sentence and his bail has been set to $80,000.
What happened?
Pe first met the alleged victim at a pub around 23 July 2017, and the latter had just recently broken up with his girlfriend at the time and wanted to know more women, according to Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
The two then became friends, and Pe then invited the victim and a woman that the latter was interested in, to his birthday party on 29 July 2017, and they also exchanged numbers.
Pe and the victim went out on 8 August 2017 to celebrate the latter’s ORD (Operationally Ready Date, when a serviceman finishes his NS), according to TODAY.
They drank at Chinatown before heading to Pe’s condominium, and the victim then asked if he could stay over, and Pe then allegedly made the victim an alcoholic drink before offering him some clothes to change and his bed to sleep in.
The victim then declined and chose to sleep on Pe’s bedroom floor instead, and he later woke up and found his jeans and underwear pulled down while Pe allegedly performing oral intercourse on him.
Pe also allegedly used his fingers to penetrate the victim from behind.
The victim then called a friend and said that he was raped by Pe, and reported the incident to the police on 9 August at about 5.47am, saying that “a guy just tried to rape me. I have known him for a few weeks, he was very intoxicated. He is at home right now.”
The authorities then went down to Pe’s home and arrested him.