Reformative training for teen who tried to rape his younger sister
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Follow topic:
SINGAPORE – A teenager who tried to rape his younger sister when she was just eight years old
The offender, now 17, will be detained in a centre where he must live according to a strict regimen that can include foot drills and counselling.
The SG Courts website states that reformative training is a more severe form of punishment for young offenders compared with probation, adding: “The court has the discretion to impose a minimum detention period of six or 12 months beginning on the date the sentence takes effect.
“This discretion is likely to be exercised bearing in mind (the offender’s) need for rehabilitation and the need to prevent (him or her) from reoffending.”
The teenager pleaded guilty in May to one count each of attempted rape and attempted sexual penetration. He cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the victim’s identity.
The offender attacked his sister twice, in the flat they were living in with their parents, older brother and paternal grandmother.
In June 2020, when he was 14 years old, he tried to rape her in her bedroom.
She was confused, and the prosecution said that she did not put up any resistance.
The offender also snapped photos of her private parts after the incident.
Two months later, he told a friend that he wanted to have sex with his younger sister and also about the images, which he had deleted.
In 2022, some time between Feb 5 and July 27, he tried but failed to sexually penetrate the girl, who was then between nine and 10 years old.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Adelle Tai said that their mother walked in on her two children and questioned the boy about his actions.
He “lied to his mother that he was helping the victim check her (private parts) as she was in pain”, the DPP told the court in May.
“The siblings’ mother believed him and told the accused not to do such a thing again.”
His crimes came to light in 2022 when his friend told their school teachers what the offender had said to him two years earlier. Court documents did not disclose what spurred the friend to do so.
The school principal met the teenager and his parents on July 27, 2022. The teenager’s father made a police report the following month.
