Singapore man gets 32 years in jail for child rape
By DPA, IANSFriday, January 15, 2010
SINGAPORE - A Singapore court sentenced a man to 32 years in jail after he raped and abused a girl for more than seven years, a media report said Saturday.
The man, 60, who was not named to protect the victim’s identity, was a spiritual adviser to the girl’s father and had been considered a family friend by her parents.
The married father of four children had already been sentenced to a 24-year-term last year, but the Court of Appeal now added eight more years arguing that the first verdict was a “manifestly inadequate sentence,” the Straits Times newspaper reported.
The prosecution had successfully argued that the man had perpetrated one of the worst cases of sexual assault ever.
He started to abuse the girl when she was eight-years-old, exploiting the parents’ trust when he stayed overnight at their apartment.
The abuse came to light in summer 2008 after the girl confided in an aunt.
The court said extending the sentence was adequate “considering the deplorable, systematic and relentless sexual assault of a young, innocent victim,” the report said.
As Singapore law reserves judicial caning for male criminals under the age of 50, the rapist will not be caned.
