The girl’s stepfather, who cannot be named due to a gag order, pleaded guilty on Monday (11 November) to one count of sexual penetrating a girl under the age of 16. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — The 15-year-old girl asked her stepfather to fetch her from school so that she could rest before returning for her co-curricular activity (CCA) later that afternoon.

Instead of sending her home, the 41-year-old man drove her to a multi-storey carpark and had sex with her inside his car.

The girl’s stepfather, who cannot be named due to a gag order, pleaded guilty on Monday (11 November) to one count of sexual penetrating a girl under the age of 16. Another charge of having sex with the same girl on an earlier occasion will be taken into consideration when the man is sentenced.

The girl’s mother had married the stepfather and had lived with him for more than a year, together with the girl’s siblings and the man’s own children. The girl, who was in Secondary 4 at the time of the offences, called the man “Uncle”.

Not the first time

While sending the girl and her siblings to school on 25 January, the stepfather agreed to pick the girl up at 12.30pm so that she could rest in the car before her CCA began at 3pm.

When he picked her up, the girl asked if she could be taken home and the stepfather agreed to do so.

However, once they had driven off, he headed to a multi-storey carpark at Admiralty Drive and parked there. The stepfather then asked the girl to move to the backseat to rest and joined her there.

The two began hugging and kissing, and the man touched the girl on her right thigh, arousing her. The two then undressed and had unprotected sex inside the vehicle.

After about half an hour, at about 2pm, a police officer spotted the two in the car and noticed that the girl was partially undressed. The pair also noticed the officer and hastily dressed themselves.

When questioned by the police officer, the man denied having sex with the girl in the car.

Both admitted to the act upon further investigation. The man said that though he initially treated the girl as his stepdaughter, they had grown closer and would often text each other. They first had sex in the same multi-storey carpark sometime between 14 and 20 January.

‘He knew what would happen’: prosecution

Arguing for a jail term of three years, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Derek Ee pointed out that the man was married to the girl’s mother and had children of his own. The man had gravely abused the trust placed in him by the girl’s mother, he said.

“On the day of incident, she specifically asked him to fetch her from school so that she could go back to rest but he drove her to a multi-storey carpark. It is not first time it had happened, he knew what would happen at the carpark,” said the DPP.

The case has been adjourned for a later date for the man’s mitigation and sentencing.

For sexual penetration of a girl under 16 years old, the man faces a jail term of up to 10 years, along with a possible fine, or both.

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