Woman charged with failing to protect daughter who was raped by son
SINGAPORE — A woman whose son sexually abused his biological sister from when the girl was five was charged in court on Monday (25 October) with failing to take steps to protect her daughter.
The woman, 43, was handed five charges in the State Courts, two counts of which are for failing to take steps to protect her daughter, then 12, from being sexually abused and hence allowing her brother to commit statutory rape between June and September 2017.
In doing so, the woman is said to have knowingly permitted the abuse, despite allegedly knowing that the brother had been assaulting his sister from 2010.
Her three remaining charges state that the woman intentionally withheld information with respect to three offences - of rape and molest - committed against her daughter in 2010 and 2017.
She cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim.
The woman will be making an application for a lawyer under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme. A police officer told the court that the Ministry of Social and Family Development was making arrangements for the victim to be transferred to a shelter.
The brother’s case was heard in the High Court on 30 January last year, where the 24-year-old was sentenced to 11-and-a-half years’ jail and seven strokes of the cane.
The court heard that he began molesting his sister when he was 13 and she was five, and raped her the year she turned 12.
He had pleaded guilty to one count of molesting a minor under 14 in 2010 - the year the offences first began. He also admitted to one count of rape, committed in 2017.
According to the court hearing, his mother discovered what he had done in 2010 when she found semen stains on her daughter's panties while showering her.
The woman's case will be heard in court again on 15 November.
If convicted of knowingly allowing a child under her custody to be ill treated, the woman may be jailed up to four years, or fined up to $4,000, or both. If convicted of intentionally omitting to give any information respecting an offence which she is legally bound to give, she can be jailed up to six months, or fined, or both.
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