SINGAPORE - A construction supervisor went on trial on Tuesday (July 4) for raping a tourist who was staying in another room in the same building in Geylang.

Bangladeshi national Hossain Anowar, 32, is accused of raping the woman once in a toilet and once in her own room, both on the third level of the building on Lorong 8 Geylang, on Feb 29, last year. He is contesting both charges.

The woman, then 44, had come to Singapore from China to visit her husband who was working here.

She arrived on Feb 20 last year and was scheduled to leave Singapore on March 18 the same year. During her stay, the couple stayed in the room rented by her husband.

According to the prosecution's opening address, in the early afternoon of Feb 29, Hossain, who was a tenant in another room, knocked on the woman's door while her husband was at work.

When she opened the door and saw him gesturing at her with a toothbrush, she understood it to mean that he wanted to borrow some toothpaste from her.

In the toilet, Hossain locked the door and raped the struggling woman, the court heard.

When she tried to leave, he pulled her into her own room and raped her again.

After he left, the woman phoned her husband to tell him about the sexual assault. Her husband rushed back from work and told the landlord to meet him there.

The landlord called the police after he ascertained the identity of the suspect.

The woman was sent for a medical examination. Hossain's semen was found on swabs taken from her body as well as tissue paper used by the woman after the rapes.

The maximum punishment for rape is 20 years' jail and a fine or caning.