A 59-year-old man was sentenced to 20 years in jail by Singapore’s High Court on Monday after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting his employer’s then-seven-year-old granddaughter between September 2015 and December 2016.
The defendant, who cannot be named because of a gag order, was convicted of three counts of digital penetration without the girl’s consent, Shin Min Daily News reported.
Another nine charges including committing obscene acts with a child and digital penetration were taken into consideration in the sentencing.
The defendant had been working since 2006 as a delivery driver at a family-run restaurant owned by the girl’s paternal grandfather. He would buy candies and toys for the girl, and the family assumed that he was just showing fatherly love toward her like a child of his own.
The defendant’s sexual assaults were revealed by the family’s domestic worker on December 5, 2016, almost 15 months after the first occasion, when the culprit visited the victim’s home to deliver a baby cot. He sat down on a sofa with the girl, showed her a pornographic video and then sexually assaulted her by inserting his fingers into her privates.
Having overheard the little girl saying, “Uncle, stop it,” the maid, who was seated at the dining table and facing away from the sofa, turned around and took note of the man removing his hand from inside the girl’s long tights.
Afterward, the maid asked the girl what had happened and she began crying and recounting the experience. The maid reported the incident to the victim’s grandfather, and the family reported it to the police.
The girl later explained that she did not tell anyone about the sexual acts – which had occurred in the restaurant as well as in the delivery van – as she was scared that he “wouldn’t want her any more.”
The judge slammed the man for betraying the trust of his longtime employers, noting that the girl was an “exceptionally vulnerable victim” because of her young age.