A former primary school teacher was acquitted of three charges under the Children and Young Persons Act today, as the judge noted that there was a “real possibility” that the two teenage male victims involved in the case had conspired to lay false blame on the man.
The 40-year-old, who was head of department in 2012 when the offences allegedly occurred, initially had 11 charges against him. The boys accused him of committing indecent acts involving them, including making one of them massage his groin area, The Straits Times reported.
But according to the judge, it turned out that one of the boys could not describe any specific offending act in relation to any specified occasion, and the prosecution could not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the ex teacher had committed the alleged acts.
The judge also found the accused’s evidence to be “credible”, which made it “unsafe to accept the evidence of [the boy]”. The accused raised doubts in the prosecution’s case against him, and the defence was able to show that the boys had clear motive to lie, which most probably resulted from the perceived unfair criticism and harsh treatment of the alleged victim by the teacher.
If the teacher had been convicted under the Children and Young Persons Act, he could have faced up to a $10,000 fine and a maximum of five years in jail.
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