AT THE COURTS
20 years' detention for paedophile who sexually abused 2 grand-nieces
Offences occurred less than 3 years after he had served jail term for raping stepdaughter
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A diagnosed paedophile who sexually assaulted his two grand-nieces less than three years after serving a lengthy prison term for raping his stepdaughter, was sentenced to the maximum 20 years' preventive detention yesterday.
Under preventive detention, recalcitrant offenders are put behind bars for seven to 20 years for the protection of the public.
High Court judge Dedar Singh Gill agreed with prosecutors that the 60-year-old man had to be removed from society for the maximum duration.
"These girls need to be protected. Three young girls have suffered. No other female should have to undergo the same experience at the hands of the accused," he said.
The judge said the man's denial of his paedophilic disorder was of grave concern. The man's risk of sexual reoffending was assessed to be high. He cannot be named, due to a gag order to protect the victims.
In 2001, he was sentenced to 19 years' jail and 24 strokes of the cane for statutory rape of his stepdaughter.
The rapes began in 1996, when the girl was between six and seven, and continued until she was 12.
After he was released from prison in 2013, he moved in with his older sister and her husband, who lived with their three grandchildren and the victims' mother.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jaime Pang said: "Not only did the accused exploit the trust that the victims reposed in him, he also betrayed the trust of his sister and her husband, who had taken him into their home."
In 2015, the man molested the older girl when she was between 10 and 11. The following year, he went into her bedroom at night and sexually violated her.
After she moved out with her mother in 2016, the man turned his attention to the younger girl.
On two occasions in 2017, when she was between nine and 10, he asked her to sit on his lap and then violated her.
The offences came to light in July 2019, after the girls' older brother called the police to report that his younger sister had become uncontactable. She was found by police several hours later and revealed that she did not want to return home as she had been sexually abused by her grand-uncle.
Last year, the man pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault by penetration and one count of outraging the modesty of a person under the age of 14.
Three other similar charges were considered during sentencing.
