A man who sexually assaulted his own daughter for 13 years, starting at the age of eight, was on June 27 sentenced to 26 and a half years in prison.

THe Court heard that the victim had her own room, but because there was no air-conditioning in the room, she occasionally went to the master bedroom to sleep with her parents. The 63-year-old accused then routinely sexually assaulted his daughter while his wife was away at work or asleep.

In December 2007, when the victim and the accused were in the master bedroom, the accused acted indecently with his daughter and told her not to tell others. The victim gave in because she feared the accused would lose his temper. The next month, the accused began sexually assaulting his daughter until August 2020. At the time, the victim was 21 years old.

The victim finally couldn’t bear it anymore, and felt guilty at the thought of “betraying” her mother, so she confided to her boyfriend that she had been sexually assaulted by her father since childhood.

Victim self-harmed twice due to emotional distress

Encouraged by her boyfriend, the victim confessed to her mother that she was sexually assaulted by her father and reported the incident to the police.

The victim revealed to a psychiatrist at the School of Mental Health that when she was unable to cope with her emotional distress, she self-harmed twice and thought about suicide.

In sentencing the accused, Justice Ang Cheng Hock said that the offender breached his moral obligation to care for his daughter. The judge said that His sexual exploitation of her was therefore a “highly egregious” and that the sentence had to be harsh enough to deter potential offenders. The sentence also had to punish the man and take him out of public circulation for an appropriate amount of time.

Justice Ang said the offender’s plea of guilty and cooperation with authorities was a mitigating factor, but added that his advanced age did not warrant a shorter sentence.