A Singaporean man described as a “monster” by prosecutors was sentenced to 25-and-a-half years in jail Tuesday for forcing his wife into prostitution and sexually abusing their six-year-old daughter and a niece.
The sentence was more than the 22 years sought by state prosecutors because of the gravity of the offenses, including punching his wife to coerce her into prostitution so they could provide for their infant son. He had refused to find a job and tormented her until she eventually succumbed to his demands for her to become a prostitute.
A High Court judge also sentenced the unemployed man, who cannot be named due to a court-issued gag order, to 24 strokes of the cane and a fine of S$12,000 (US$8,845).
“The 27-year-old accused is a monster,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Eunice Lau said in court.
“The sordid sexual depravity of his transgressions is unprecedented and involves him sexually exploiting the three most vulnerable women in his life – whom he had every responsibility to protect,” Lau said, naming the wife, their daughter, and his wife’s 13-year-old niece.
The man forced his wife to advertise her sexual services online using physical and emotional violence “to ensure that she fulfilled a daily quota of customers,” Lau added.
A frequent user of online platforms to engage prostitutes, he taught his wife how to solicit customers. He also coerced her into secretly filming herself having sex with customers, the prosecutor said, as he had a fetish for seeing her having sex with other men.
The court heard that the man sexually abused his own six-year-old daughter by forcing her to perform oral sex on him. On the day when his wife’s niece was supposed to sit for a PSLE exam, he undressed, kissed and fondled the girl.
Over a period of three months in 2016, the man’s wife provided sexual services to more than a hundred male clients, earning close to S$11,000 which she gave to him.
Prosecutors described it as the most aggravated case of human trafficking in Singapore.
Additional reporting by Coconuts Singapore
Reader Interactions