Former Singaporean teacher jailed for molesting primary schoolgirl in class

The court heard that the man joined the Ministry of Education in 1993 and was posted to teach at the victim’s primary school in 2005.

He taught several subjects and became a physical education (PE) teacher in 2008 to students between Primary One and Six.

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In 2015, the victim was about six to seven and she was in Primary One. The offender was her PE teacher.

Sometime that year, the victim attended a theory class for PE in a classroom at the school.

The teacher set up a laptop at the front of the classroom and called students to the front one by one, asking them to sit on his lap and play a game on the laptop.

When it was the victim’s turn, she went forward and sat on the teacher’s lap, wanting to play the game.

The teacher molested her while she was on his lap.

The girl felt “very disgusted, scared and embarrassed” whenever she thought about what happened.

However, the incident went unreported for several years. In 2020, the girl attended a sexual education class and recalled the incident, realising that the teacher’s actions were wrong.

She sent a message on Instagram to the teacher in charge of discipline at the school on Mar 18, 2021, telling him what happened in 2015.

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The victim also expressed concern that her younger sister was in Primary One, and that the accused was one of the latter’s teachers.

Subsequently, the case was flagged and the accused was confronted with the victim’s allegations. He admitted to molesting several female students in the manner described by the victim.

He admitted that he had chosen to molest younger female students in lower primary as he felt the older girls would know that what he did was wrong, and he did not want to be discovered.

Defence lawyers from Drew & Napier, led by Wendell Wong, pointed out that the touch was over clothes and brief.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Selene Yap asked for twenty-one-and-a-half to twenty-five-and-a-half months’ jail, including extra jail time in lieu of caning.

Yap stressed the young age of the victim, at six to seven years old, as well as the offender’s “serious abuse of position and breach of trust”.

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In sentencing, the judge agreed for a start with the defence on the placing of the case within a sentencing framework as there was no skin-to-skin contact and the contact was not prolonged.

However, she pointed out the “significant aggravating factors” of the case, including the very young age of the victim.

“Every year at that point in a child’s life is a significant milestone in terms of levels of maturity and vulnerability as well,” said District Judge Kamala Ponnampalam.

She added that the “stage was set” for the offence to be committed, including the setting up of a game to distract the child.

She granted the defence’s request for the man to begin his jail term on February 13, after spending “the season” with his family.