A 66-year-old British teacher has been sentenced to a 19-and-a-half-month jail term for molesting two young girls during his classes at a learning centre in Orchard, various media reported.
His first victim, aged seven at the time, was enrolled in the centre from November 2013 to December 2014 — she attended classes there once a week under his tutelage.
It was around the period between September to December in 2014 where things got disturbing for the victim. During classes, Lewis would go to her seat and place a hand under the table, a spot where no one was looking, and molest her. The girl felt frightened and uncomfortable but kept the incident under wraps in fear of a scolding from Lewis.
Only through watching a chance episode of Crime Watch (featuring a case of a tutor molesting a student) did the victim finally spill the beans to her mother upon realising that what Lewis did was wrong.
A police report was lodged in July 2015, whereupon the victim’s mother learnt that Lewis had been suspended by the centre for another police report lodged against him by the parents of another student during March of the same year.
In court, the Deputy Public Prosecutor pressed for a jail term of 18 months with an additional six weeks as a substitute for the caning, as offenders over the age of 50 cannot be caned under the law. She cited in her sentencing submission the age of his victims and “the breach of trust and authority bestowed on him as her teacher”.
Under Singapore’s law, the maximum fine for outraging the modesty of a minor below 14 years old is a jail term of up to five years, a fine and caning.
