Rahaman Shahinor, a 32-year-old Bangladeshi working as a migrant worker, pleaded guilty to 2 counts of molestation and was sentenced to 20 months in jail and 3 strokes of the cane on 14 April.
He molested a 13-year-old girl at the Forest Canopy Boardwalk in One North, as well as a 30-year-old teaching support staff at the same location.
Rahaman was a construction worker working at the site for agri-business firm Wilmar International at One-North Link.
What happened?
On the evening of 28 January, Rahaman intentionally bumped into the 13-year-old girl while she was walking towards the One-North MRT from her school.
The girl then fell down and Rahaman groped her chest over her shirt.
The girl then tried to run back to her school but her path was blocked by Rahaman, who then proceeded to grope her chest again and touched her stomach.
The girl then tried to turn around and run towards the MRT station, Rahaman then grabbed her bag from behind.
He then tried to pull her blouse upwards.
The girl shouted at him to stop but he didn’t and continued to persistently pull the collar of her blouse.
The girl then tried to call her mother but Rahaman tried to grab her phone.
He failed to grab her phone and that was when he ran away.
Molester strikes again
The following day, at about 7.10am, Rahaman intercepted a 30-year-old teaching support staff member who worked at the same school that the first victim attended, and grabbed her chest over her dress.
The woman tried to detain him while she called the police but Rahaman escaped.
She lost sight of the perpetrator although she later spotted him walking down One North Crescent towards Fusionopolis, where she then recorded a video of him.
As fate would have it, the first victim’s mother would just so happen to be walking out of the school at that time.
The second victim then caught her attention and shouted to her while pointing at Rahaman: “That’s him! That’s him!”.
The school’s security officer and the first victim’s mother then tried to track Rahaman down but lost sight of him.
It was later revealed that he had taken the MRT from One-North station back to his Dormitory near Pioneer.
“I didn’t know Singapore law”
Rahaman, who wasn’t represented by a lawyer, repeatedly apologised for his actions throughout the court hearing, begging for the District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz to give him a lighter sentence because his parents are waiting for him in Bangladesh.
He said:
“Sorry. I wrong already. I mistake already. Next time, I never do. My father, mother cry for me. I no working. Many cry, (SIC)”
He then tried to defend himself, saying that he didn’t know about Singapore’s laws, to which the judge retorted by saying that it isn’t a defence to say that you didn’t know something was an offence.
Top image source: Google Maps