Married man touched foster son's genitals before allowing him to use computer

Straits Times

09-05-2025

He had touched the child's private parts during all four incidents, court documents stated.
Married man touched foster son's genitals before allowing him to use computer
Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
May 8, 2025
A married man committed indecent acts on his foster son, then aged between nine and 10 years old, on four separate occasions in their Choa Chu Kang home in 2016.
He had touched the child's private parts during all four incidents, court documents stated.
The offender, who turned 63 on May 7, 2025, was sentenced to 13 months' jail on May 8 after he pleaded guilty to one count of committing an indecent act on the victim - an offence under the Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA).
Three other similar charges were considered during his sentencing.
He cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the victim's identity.
Deputy public prosecutors Colin Ng and Yeo Kee Hwan stated in documents that the victim was four years old around 2010 to 2011 when he was placed in foster care for an undisclosed reason.
The boy later moved to the Housing Board flat that the offender shared with his wife. He addressed the man as "dad".
While they were alone at home in 2016, the boy asked his foster father for permission to use a desktop computer.
The DPPs said: "To the victim's confusion, the accused replied that he would allow the victim to use the computer after (the accused) conducted a 'check'."
The man then touched the boy's genitals before allowing him to use the computer.
The victim did not tell anyone about the incident as he was unaware that the man had committed an unlawful act.
Three years passed before the boy attended sexual education classes in school in 2019 and realised his foster father's earlier conduct was wrong.
Despite this, it took the boy three more years before he told a school counsellor on May 10, 2022, about his ordeal. Court documents did not disclose what finally spurred him to break his silence.
The counsellor related the incident to her reporting officer, and the matter was escalated to the authorities.
Later that day, the victim was removed from the flat for his safety and placed in a home.
He made a police report on May 11, 2022.
The DPPs urged the court to sentence the offender to between 11 and 13 months' jail, stressing that the victim was between nine and 10 years old at the time of the offences.
"The more vulnerable the minor is, the more protection he or she will require, and the more reprehensible will be the conduct of an offender in exploiting him or her for the offender's own gratification," they said.
"An unequivocal and uncompromising message must be sent to all would-be sex offenders that abusing a relationship or a position of authority to gratify sexual impulse will inevitably be met with the harshest penal consequences."
The offender had "utterly failed to act in a manner befitting of a father figure", the prosecutors added.
For each charge under the CYPA, an offender can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to $10,000.
A repeat offender can be jailed for up to seven years and fined up to $20,000.
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