Judge finds man guilty of abducting woman but acquits him of molestation
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The man abducted the woman outside a Hotel 81 branch in Lavender Street at around 1.20am on May 15, 2016, and carried her into a taxi.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM GOOGLE MAPS
SINGAPORE - A district judge has found a man guilty of abducting a 23-year-old woman from outside a Hotel 81 branch in Lavender Street in 2016.
District Judge Tan Jen Tse, however, acquitted Shamsul Abdullah, now 53, of two molestation charges involving the same woman.
Delivering the verdict on Friday (Nov 29) after a 10-day trial, the judge said: "It is indisputable that the victim was in a highly intoxicated state. I do not find her testimony to be unusually convincing.
"She fell in and out of consciousness and her memory of events was substantially impaired... There is no evidence to corroborate the victim's testimony that she was molested."
Shamsul was represented by lawyers Sadhana Rai and Marjorie Kong.
Court documents said that Shamsul, a Singaporean, abducted the woman outside the hotel at around 1.20am on May 15, 2016 and carried her into a taxi.
He was accused of molesting her once inside the vehicle and another time at the void deck of a block of flats.
He was given a discharge amounting to an acquittal on Friday for the molestation charges.
The court heard that Shamsul allegedly reoffended while the trial was ongoing.
He has six other pending charges, including two for drug-related offences, and they will be dealt with at a later stage.
Among other things, Shamsul is accused of using criminal force on a policeman by spitting in the officer's face on Aug 6 this year.
He is also said to have slapped a woman's left cheek twice that day.
Shamsul is now in remand and is expected to be sentenced on the abduction charge on Dec 18.
Those convicted of abduction can be jailed for up to seven years and fined or caned.
Shamsul cannot be caned as he is over 50 years old.
