'Lack Of Evidence': No Justice For Teen Who Was Sexually Abused By Dad

A 37-year-old man from Singapore accused of sexually grooming and assaulting his daughter has been acquitted of all 13 charges. The man was accused of sexually exploiting his daughter from the time she was five or six years old to the time she was 12. On March 21, a High Court judge acquitted him of all the charges on the grounds that the testimonies of the girl were inconsistent. 

How Lack Of Evidence Failed A Little Girl 

As per the reports, Justice Valerie Thean said that the prosecution failed its burden of proving the offences beyond any doubt. Even though the judge found the man's testimonies strange, the acquittal couldn't be stopped as proper evidence didn't prove the charges. 

The man was accused of "aggravated statutory rape, 10 counts of aggravated sexual assault by penetration, one count of committing an indecent act with a child, and one count of exhibiting an obscene object to a young person."

These acts were committed perpetually between 2012 and 2019 at various locations including the family home, the man's office and the car park near the family home. The trial began on November 8, 2022, and the man since then contended the charges. The girl is now 16 and is estranged from her family. 

An important piece of evidence in the case was the sex toys which the father purchased. The girl alleged that the father used them on her. However, the judge said that the prosecution's details of the dates when the toys were purchased didn't reconcile. 

Moreover, the father also denied using sex toys on his daughter. He said that he purchased them for his wife on their anniversary and the second one was free. Justice Thean found the father's testimony “rather strange” as he had earlier admitted that his wife didn't like using sex toys, had placed the order just two days before the anniversary and ultimately didn't use them. 

However, the judge added, “Acquittal is required even where the accused person’s testimony contains discrepancies, so long as there remain significant inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case that generate a reasonable doubt.”

The prosecution suggested that the father didn't provide any motive as to why the daughter would try to frame him. However, the judge said that the absence of a proven motive is insufficient in proving a person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge further said that it was unsafe to convict the father as the testimony of the girl was not so “unusually convincing” and did not overcome the doubts arising due to lack of corroboration of the claims. 

The judge said, "Whilst C presented as a young witness trying her best to remember, the question of whether a complainant is unusually convincing must be premised upon the reliability of her evidence. It may be that the passage of time, coupled with her youth at the time of the offences, made clarity and recollection difficult." 

Incidents that the girl recounted were denied by the father

In court, the girl recounted that in 2012 or 2013, when she was in the same bathtub as her brother, her father asked her to perform an indecent act on him. However, the man denied the allegations and said that he never dared to bathe infants. 

Then, the girl talked about another incident, that happened on September 4, 2019, in which her father asked her to perform oral sex when she was making cookies with him. The father again denied the allegation and said that he was too tired that day to bake cookies. 

The girl mentioned about another incident which happened on September 11, 2019. She said that her father used sex toys to assault her. She testified that she had not seen the sex toy before that night. However, the judge found this statement contradictory as she mentioned the sex toys in the letter that she wrote to her mother on September 1, 2019. 

The girl said that she did not exactly remember when her father started using sex toys on her but she said that it started in 2017 or 2018 when she was in Primary 5. This was again inconsistent with her statement that her father used sex toys on her since June 2019. The judge noted that as per the prosecution's evidence, the sex toys were delivered only on August 20, 2019.    

More about the girl and her experiences

The girl is the elder of two children. Her brother is five years junior to her. In 2019, she started telling her friends that she was being sexually abused. On September 1, 2019, she wrote a letter to her mother in which she claimed that her father used a sex toy on her which is kept on the shelf of her room. She shared screenshots of the letter with her schoolmates. 

On September 3, 2019, her teacher noticed scars on her wrist and asked her why she had harmed herself. The girl told her teacher that she was feeling stressed and unhappy as her family neglected her. On September 5, 2019, the school counsellor called the girl's parents and suggested that the girl should be sent for counselling. 

One of the schoolmates to whom the girl had shown the letter told her about the revelations to her mother. The schoolmate's mother then reached out to the girls' teacher. On September 13, 2019, the counsellor asked the girl about the revelations and the girl recounted certain incidents. The counsellor alerted the principal and a police complaint was filed. The girl was sent for medical examination too later that day.