Man sexually assaulted friend's sleeping bride after wedding dinner

A couple's wedding dinner turned from a joyous occasion into a nightmare when the bride was molested by a groomsman while she was sleeping in a bridal suite.

He also sexually penetrated the woman with his finger.

After a trial, Principal District Judge Victor Yeo yesterday convicted the man, now 42, of one count each of molestation and sexually penetrating the woman without her consent. The offender, who was the groom's friend, cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the victim's identity.

The couple have since divorced, but the reason was not mentioned in court yesterday.

In their submissions, deputy public prosecutors Ng Yiwen and Goh Yong Ngee said alcoholic drinks were served during the wedding dinner in a downtown hotel in October 2016.

After the dinner ended at around 11pm, the couple and their bridesmaids and groomsmen continued drinking in the bridal suite.

At around 1am, the bride took a shower and went to sleep in the bedroom alone while the merry-making continued in the living room. She deliberately slept on the right side of the bed, leaving space on the left for her husband.

She woke up and felt somebody touching her chest underneath her nightgown. She also felt someone performing a sexual act on her. The prosecutors said she later realised the touches were not the same as when she was intimate with her husband.

While she could not see the person's face in the darkness, she could tell the face was much bigger than her husband's, said the DPPs.

When she asked who he was, he did not reply. Feeling scared, she went to look for her husband and woke him up after finding him asleep on a sofa in the living room.

The man then came out of the bedroom and left after the woman confronted him. The groom accompanied his wife to make a police report.

The defence, led by lawyer Edmond Pereira, said the accused had fallen asleep on a sofa in the bridal suite after the dinner.

The man earlier testified that he had found himself on a bed when he woke up and had no idea how he had got there. He said he thought he was home and reached over to caress the breast of the person lying beside him, thinking she was his wife. He retracted his hand when he heard moaning that did not sound like his wife's.

He also denied sexually penetrating the bride.

Before convicting the man, Judge Yeo said he had found the victim to be a credible and honest witness. He did not find the accused to be credible, and found that the purported case of mistaken identity was unbelievable.

The man is due to be sentenced on July 21.