Man sentenced to jail for having sex with 13-year-old girl

SINGAPORE - After meeting a 13-year-old girl through a mutual friend in January this year, Muhammad Nur Hakim Abdullah asked her to be his girlfriend. She agreed and days later, he pressured her into having unprotected sex with him in his home.

On Monday, Muhammad Nur Hakim was sentenced to a year in prison for having sex with the minor, after pleading guilty to two of seven charges which also involved oral and anal sex. All the offences were committed in January.

The jobless man, 21, received a further five months' jail for drug-related offences.

The court heard that Muhammad Nur Hakim had invited the girl to stay overnight at his home. He asked the girl, now 14, to have sex with him after his siblings went out and the pair were left alone in the HDB flat in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8. She ignored him at first, but eventually gave in after he persisted with the request.

One to two weeks later, they had sex again, this time in a toilet cubicle in Bishan Park II.

Separate cases against two other men are still pending for similar charges committed with the same girl, who ended up pregnant and had to have an abortion. A third, Musa Ahmad, received the same one-year jail term last month.

Muhammad Nur Hakim's lawyer, Mr Christopher Sim, said his client was born out of wedlock and lacked a father figure in his life. The maximum penalty for having sex with someone under the age of 16 is 10 years in jail and a fine.

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