A man who molested his nine-year-old stepdaughter twice was jailed for 15 months and ordered to be given three strokes of the cane yesterday.

The 30-year-old Malaysian pleaded guilty to the offences, committed in May last year.

The court heard that the victim lived with her godmother, and would stay at her own mother's home only on Thursdays.

The victim shared a close relationship with the accused, who has two children of his own with her mother, and regarded him as her father.

Some time in May last year, while she was drying her hair in a room and her mother was taking a shower, the accused approached her and asked in a whisper whether he could dry her hair for her. She agreed.

While he was drying her hair, he molested her. Stunned, she kept quiet.

He then molested her again despite her protests, and told her not to tell her mother what he had done.

But she did tell, first her mother and then her godmother, who noticed she was crying herself to sleep that night.

Her mother said she would handle it and confronted the accused, who did not deny the allegations but did not apologise.

The victim subsequently told a classmate, whose father then informed the school counsellor. It was the counsellor who lodged a police report.

The accused could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, caned or received any combined sentence on each charge of molesting a person under 14 years old.

Elena Chong