31-year-old Abdul Haqem Abdul Majid, was sentenced earlier today (August 24) to 14 months and 18 weeks jail for abduction, outrage of modesty and other unrelated charges incuding dishonest misappropriation of property.
Abdul Haqem came across a drunk woman by the side of the road, he picked her up and carried her to a nearby HDB block, rebuffing a stranger’s offer to help along the way and undressed the woman at a staircase.
The stranger went to look for the victim when he grew suspicious because Abdul Haqem had not returned to his motorbike.
He then saw the accused between the victim’s legs and shouted at him.
All three parties were strangers to each other.
The incident happeed on July 26 last year, the victim (42-years-old) drank 2 bottles of beer at her workplace followed by two bottles of liquor with her friends inside a club.
She then left the club in a taxi, she was very drunk, and alighted across her home, at the roadside where she vomited on the grass.
The stranger, 26-year-old Kenneth Cheong Kian Yu, was passing by on his motorbike when he saw the victim lying face down on the ground, so he dismounted from his bike and tapped her on her shoulder to see if she was alright.
The woman then turned her head and vomited onto the tarmac.
it was at this point when the accused, Abdul Haqem, rode past the scene on his own motorcycle and saw that the victim was drunk.
He then alighted from his motorcycle and lied to Cheong that the victim was his neighbour, repeatedly calling her “Nina”, which was a name that he made up – he wanted to give Cheong the impression that he knew the victim.
He then lifted her off the road and carried her to a block nearby.
Cheong saw Abdul Haqem struggling to carry the victim, so he offered to help but was rebuffed.
Abdul Haqem then carried the victim to a staircase landing at a nearby block, where he then unbuttoned her dress and molested her.
Cheong was getting suspicious when he waited for a long time for Abdul Haqem to return to his bike, he also noticed that Abdul Haqem did not part in motorcycle in the carpark and found it odd as he claimed that he was a neighbour.
So Cheong went to look for the pair and saw Abdul Haqem in the middle of his sexual attack on the victim at the 12th floor.
He shouted at him, who then zipped up his pants hurriedly.
Cheong then told Abdul Haqem to leave as he attended to the victim, who came to, calling the police and waiting for their arrival with her.
During mitigation, the defence asked for not more than 8 months and 18 weeks jail, aruging that Abdul Haqem pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity when the charge was changed from rape to outrage of modesty.
The judge said that the sentence that the defence were asking was lenient given the severity of the accused’s crimes.
Abdul Haqem could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or given any combination of these punishments, for using criminal force with a person intending to outrage their modesty,
He could have also been jailed for up to seven years, fined, caned, or given any mix of these penalties for abduction.