A 42-year-old cemetery labourer who admitted to raping a homeless child earlier in April has just been sentenced to serve 15 years in jail and receive the maximum 24 strokes of the cane, The Straits Times reports.
The 12-year-old girl had been living with her mother and younger sister at the Lim Chu Kang cemetery site in early 2012, and the labourer — Roslan Jaafar — befriended the family after seeing them around.
It was then that he started to take the girl to quiet spots and have consensual sex with her, telling her not to inform the mother about their trysts. Over the course of a month in May 2012, they had an illicit sexual relationship, doing the deed in Lim Chu Kang Hindu Cemetery and a park at Sungei Kadut.
Although the girl consented to having sex with the man, sexual intercourse with a girl under 14 (with or without consent) is considered rape.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Quek Jing Feng had argued for a deterrent sentence of 10 to 15 years due to their 26-year age gap. Two other counts of sexual assault of a minor and sexual exploitation of a child were taken into consideration as well during the sentencing.
The family have since moved out of the cemetery.
Photo: Jnzl’s Public Domain Photos via Flickr
