Man convicted of raping drunken woman after he tailed her and offered to drive her home

SINGAPORE – A man who tailed a drunken woman around Holland Village for nearly an hour before offering to drive her home was found guilty on Sept 22 of raping the woman at her condominium unit.

The 42-year-old man, Dhanabalan Fok Jin Jin, had contended that the victim had consensual sex with him.

But High Court Judge Valerie Thean

concluded after a trial

that Fok was “lying in wait” for the victim and her friend.

Fok’s friend Lee Kit, who was with him throughout the incident, testified during the trial as a prosecution witness.

Lee, 36, was sentenced in March 2024 to 20 months’ jail and four strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to molesting the same woman.

Justice Thean found that the victim was unable to give consent due to intoxication, and did not consent to having sex with Fok.

The judge also said Fok gave inconsistent accounts of what transpired in the victim’s bedroom.

Fok initially denied that he had sex with the victim until he was confronted with the audio recordings from his in-car camera, which captured him expressing worry about being identified and caught.

He then gave a statement to the police saying that the woman began touching him while they were kissing on the bed.

During the trial, he claimed that the victim began stroking his thigh, so he kissed her to ascertain whether she was interested in having sex with him.

Fok said he initially denied having sex with the woman because he was “scared” that his wife might find out about it.

The judge rejected this explanation, saying that his lie reflected his guilty conscience.

Sentencing arguments will be heard at a later date.

On the night of Jan 30, 2021, the victim celebrated her birthday with six friends at a restaurant in Dempsey Hill before they went to a bar at Holland Village, where she had at least three glasses of margaritas and two shots of tequila.

When the bar closed, the group planned to continue the party at one of their homes.

The victim and her friend struggled to book a private-hire vehicle, and several taxi drivers declined to take them as passengers, leaving the two women stranded.

When Fok and Lee approached them and offered to drive them home, the victim accepted the offer, believing it was her only chance of getting home.

During the drive, the two women threw up and fell asleep in the backseat.

When they arrived at her condo, the victim took a minute to find her access card, which Lee used to open the gate.

The events that took place in the apartment are disputed, but it is not disputed that Fok had sex with her and that Lee had carried out a sex act on her.

The victim’s friend, who was lying on the same bed, was not sexually assaulted.

After the two men left the victim’s home in Fok’s car, they discussed whether they might get into trouble with the police.

Fok then realised he had left his mobile phone at the woman’s home.

The duo returned to the condo and tried to persuade the victim to hand over the phone. She called the police, and the two men were arrested.

During the trial, deputy public prosecutors David Menon and Ashley Chin presented CCTV footage to show that the two men had stalked the victim and her friend between about 10.45pm and 11.30pm, before they all got into Fok’s car.

Lee testified that Fok wanted to follow the two women because they were drunk.

Fok’s lawyer, Mr Ramesh Tiwary, argued that there was insufficient evidence to safely conclude that the victim was so overcome by alcohol that she was incapable of giving consent.

He noted that the victim could give her address to Fok and Lee, and had physically supported her friend, who was unable to walk, from the car to the lift lobby.

Mr Tiwary also contended that Lee’s evidence is unreliable.