SINGAPORE -A 55-year-old man who molested his 13-year-old grand-niece in their Hougang home several times last year was jailed for 16 months on Thursday.
On one occasion last April, the man, a surveyor who is married with five children, was preparing to go out to buy newspapers at 7am in the morning when he saw the victim getting ready to go to school.
He approached her from behind, kissed her on the lips, then squeezed her breasts.
She pushed his hands away, but he went on to stroke her genitals with his hand. He stopped when she told him that she had to go to school.
The girl, whose parents are divorced, had been under his family's care since she was about two years old. She decided to live with the man's family when she was in primary school and treated him as her father a court heard.
Three days after the molest, the girl lodged a police report and also ran away to her biological father's house.
On another occasion earlier that month, she was watching a football match on television in the living room when the culprit came to sit down beside her.
He reached over and grabbed her breasts under her T-shirt.
When she tried to push him away he held her down and put his hand into her panties, and stroked her genitals.
He stopped when he thought that his wife was about to return home from work, and told the girl not to tell anyone about the incident.
The man pleaded guilty to two counts of using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a person; another count of the charge taken into consideration for sentencing.
For each count of using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a person under 14 years of age, he could have been jailed for up to five years, or fined, or caned, or punished with any combination of such punishments.
