Molester weeps after being sentenced to jail and rotan for attacking teenager in HDB lift

SINGAPORE - A cleaner who molested a 19-year-old girl in a lift after trailing her from a bus interchange wept after he was jailed for 10 months and ordered to be given three strokes of the cane on Thursday.

Ong Siang Long, 27, had pleaded guilty a week earlier to grabbing her buttocks and touching her left breast in the lift of a HDB block in the early hours of March 2.

The court heard that the girl had fallen asleep and missed her stop before waking at Yishun Bus Interchange.

Ong, who had sat beside her, alighted there and decided to follow her in an effort to make friends.

When she realised he was following her, she felt uncomfortable and scared.

She decided to take the lift at a block in Yishun Street 72 with the intention of getting rid of Ong - but he followed her inside and molested her.

After a struggle she got out on the sixth floor and ran back to her flat to call the police.

Ong, who was not represented, has previous convictions for theft and fraudulent possession. He pleaded for a last chance and a fine, promising he would never do it again.

But District Judge Samuel Chua told him: "The victim was 19 at the time of the offence and must have been terrified at being trailed from the bus interchange and into the lift, and having her modesty violated by you in the lift when she was alone and helpless."

Ong, who cried after he was sentenced, could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, caned or received any combined punishment.

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