SINGAPORE - An unemployed man was jailed for 14 years and ordered to receive 22 strokes on the cane on Tuesday (June 13) after raping a Malaysian Facebook friend just hours after she arrived in Singapore.

Yap Jun Cheng, now 26, pleaded guilty in court to three sexual offences committed against the woman who was then 20 years old.

He admitted that he raped, sexually penetrated and molested her in his Tampines flat on March 4, 2013.

Eleven other charges, mainly for sex-related offences, were taken into consideration during sentencing. Three of them, including a second count of rape, involved the same Malaysian woman who is now 24 years old.

In 2011, Yap, who is a Singaporean, sent her a friend request on Facebook and she accepted it. After this, they communicated with each other sporadically but did not meet in person.

She decided to come to Singapore to look for a job in February 2013.

As she was unfamiliar here, she contacted Yap, then 22, via Facebook and sought his help to show her around.

Yap, who was then serving his national service with the Singapore Civil Defence Force, met her at Paya Lebar MRT station in his uniform at around 9.30am on March 4, 2013 and took her to his home after saying that he wanted to change his clothes.

His grandmother was at home at that time, the court heard.

Yap later pulled the Malaysian into his bedroom, locked the door and professed his liking for her. He also told the woman to leave her current boyfriend and added that he could financially support her.

When she tried to get away and held onto the knob of his bedroom door, he used so much strength to pull her away that the knob broke off, trapping her inside.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) David Khoo said the woman called out to Yap's grandmother a few times but received no response.

Court documents did not mention why the elderly woman, who is now 76, did not come to her rescue.

Yap then molested the Malaysian before raping her. When he was done, Yap suddenly told his victim that he would kill her.

DPP Khoo said: "The victim was extremely frightened. She set herself to do whatever it was that she had to do to leave the room alive, no matter how degrading or abhorrent."

Yap then made her perform oral sex on him and she complied out of fear.

Yap later managed to open his bedroom door by using a hanger and his grandmother came forward. But his terrified victim did not dare call out for help as she was still afraid he would harm her. The grandmother later left the flat.

When the Malaysian told him that she was hungry, he asked her to cook some food. However, Yap refused to allow the victim to dress herself from the waist downwards and she had to prepare the meal half-naked.

He only granted her repeated requests to cover up when she was nearly scalded by some oil spilling out from a wok she was using.

DPP Khoo said: "She stopped cooking when she became nauseous as her gastric problems acted up, and told the accused that she could only consume her gastric medication after she had (consumed) food.

"The accused then agreed to bring her out to eat and the victim began to feel that she had some hope of leaving the flat alive."

But Yap raped her one more time in the living room before they left the flat together.

After eating at a food centre in Bedok, he insisted on accompanying the woman by train to Boon Lay MRT station where they parted ways.

Her cousin-in-law sensed something was amiss when he picked her up in Malaysia and she told him about her ordeal.

They returned to Singapore to lodge a police report later that day.

For raping the woman, Yap could have been jailed up to 20 years and fined or caned.