A 17-year-old boy in Singapore, who was 14 years old at the time of his offences, was given a conditional warning by the police back in 2020 for molesting his 10-year-old half-sister several times, according to The Straits Times.
However, he persisted with his offences and continued to target his sister in 2021 after their mother let him return to their home, despite him being told that he couldn’t do so without the permission of Child Protection Services.
The boy pleaded guilty to three charges on Monday (6 November), including penetration of the victim, with five other molestation charges to be considered when the court sentences him.
Background
Deputy Public Prosecutor Benedict Teong told the court that the victim and the accused have different fathers but the same mother, and they lived in a one-bedroom HDB with two other siblings.
The woman would sleep in the bedroom while her four children slept together in the living room.
From November 2019 to Janaury 2020, on 5 separate occasions, the accused would get up in the middle of the night and molest the victim, who pretended to be asleep.
A police report was eventually lodged on 30 January 2020, and the boy was then made to move out of the home to live with his aunt so as to prevent these molestations to happen again, which was part of a family safety plan that was prepared by the Child Protection Services, which stated that the boy’s interaction with his sisters had to be supervised by a professional.
He was then given a 12-month conditional warning by the police on 25 November 2020 for the 5 counts of molest and told that if he re-offended during the period, he would be prosecuted.
However, from June 2021 on the weekends, the boy would return to their flat without the CPS’s knowledge.
The mother would tell the victim and her sister not to tell the CPS officer of their school counsellor about the accused coming over to stay with them on the weekends.
He would sleep in the living room with his brother while the victim and her sister would sleep in their parents’ bedroom.
In June 2021, the boy asked the victim to engage in intercourse with him and she refused, but eventually gave in after he was adamantly pestering her for it.
Then on 22 August 2021, he snuck into his mother’s room while everyone was sleeping, and molested the victim again, penetrating her on the mattress.
The victim then told her classmate about what happened and their school counsellor was then made aware of it, before a police report was lodged.
The court called for a report to assess the boy’s suitability for informative training and he is expected to be sentenced next month.