46-year-old man gets 8 years' jail, 12 strokes of the cane for sexual assault on boy

SINGAPORE - A 46-year-old food stall cook was sentenced on Monday (April 9) to eight years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane for sexually assaulting a teenage boy who lived in the same housing estate in Yishun.

Indian national Samsugani Jahir Hussain pleaded guilty to one charge of performing oral sex on the teen, who was then 13, in the male toilet at a coffee shop in Yishun Street 22 at 9.55pm on Nov 25, 2016.

A second charge of molesting the boy on the same night was taken into consideration for sentencing.

Both the prosecution and the defence sought the mandatory minimum sentence for the offence.

The High Court heard that Samsugani and the boy, who cannot be named, became acquainted about four months before the incident.

Samsugani would strike up conversations with the boy when they ran into each other; he would also tease the victim about his weight.

Several days before the incident, he saw the victim cycling in the neighbourhood and invited the boy to his rented unit for a massage, claiming that it would help him lose weight. The boy rejected the offer.

At about 9.30pm on Nov 25, 2016, the boy was pushing his bicycle, which had a punctured tyre, on his way home when he met Samsugani.

Samsugani offered to take the boy to a bicycle shop in the area. He insisted on giving the boy $2 to defray the costs of inflating the tyre before the two parted ways.

But the boy decided to turn back to return the money to Samsugani who, however, insisted he keep it.

Samsugani tried to get the victim to follow him home, but the boy refused.

While they were near a coffee shop, Samsugani pestered the boy to go into the toilet.

The boy relented and entered a cubicle but before he could lock the door, Samsugani followed him in and performed oral sex on the victim.

After about 10 to 15 seconds, the boy shouted for him to stop and dashed out of the cubicle.

The boy washed himself when he reached home. He was so upset by the encounter that he cried, the court heard.

He was too embarrassed to tell his mother what had happened but eventually told his grandfather about his ordeal.

The grandfather called the police and Samsugani was arrested the following day.

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