Tutor jailed, caned for repeatedly molesting 12-year-old pupil

A tuition teacher, who repeatedly molested a 12-year-old boy for nearly two hours, was sentenced to nine months' jail and three strokes of the cane on Friday. Benjamin Lee Kee Tat, 24, pleaded guilty to repeatedly hugging the pupil from behind and stroking his private parts at a tuition centre in Woodlands on May 25, 2011.

In sentencing him District Judge Lim Keng Yeow said this was the kind of offence every child in Singapore should be protected from and every would-be predatory sex offender must be warned against. He described Lee's acts against his pupil as "heinous, reprehensible and utterly deplorable''.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Dillon Kok had told the court that the victim's tuition mate was absent when Lee molested him during mathematics tuition that day. Lee's assault was two hours long and he was persistent, he said.

The boy was shocked and very frightened when Lee kept touching and stroking him over his pants. To make him stop, the boy asked Lee how to solve a question. But after answering him Lee continued molesting him. Subsequently Lee turned the victim's chair to face him and tried to unbutton the victim's pants but the boy pushed him away.

After finishing his work, the boy went to the washroom further away to delay returning. He tried to send a text message to his mother but stopped when he saw Lee approaching. Lee led the boy back to the classroom and continued molesting him.

During a second visit to the washroom the boy managed to send messages to his mother who did not notice them until much later. The boy's ordeal ended at 6.20pm when he managed, after several attempts, to run out of the classroom.

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