Muhammad Alif Ab Rahim, 36-years-old, was sentenced to 28 years imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane after force-feeding a 13-year-old girl vodka and raping her.
He pleaded guilty to one count of rape of a minor and two counts of sexual assault by penetration of a minor back in March.
He had tried to get a lighter sentence during his appeal, arguing that he had low intelligence – making it difficult for him to choose if he wanted to plead guilty or claim trial.
He didn’t have a lawyer and filed his own submissions, claiming that certain charges against him were not proven beyond reasonable doubt.
His guilty plea-retraction attempt was then rejected by a 3-judge panel of the Court of Appeal.
His crimes
The victim had met him through one of her friends.
They met by chance on 24 October 2017 and he suggested buying some drinks and having a chat at the park.
he then restrained her and forced her to swallow the vodka, before brutally raping her over 2 hours at Kallang Riverside Park.
The victim then crawled to a grass patch near the toilet and sent voice messages to a few people, telling them about what happened.
Alif was then tracked by the police to his girlfriend’s home, where he hid inside a cupboard.
He denied meeting the victim that night but gave a different account a year later.