Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Trainee teacher jailed for underage sex offences

By Angela Lim – December 29th, 2010

A 23-year-old trainee teacher pleads guilty to having underage sex with two young girls. (AFP file photo)

Yet another member of the teaching profession has been convicted of sexual offences.

Aaron Kok Chun Cheong, 23, a trainee teacher, pleaded guilty to two counts of sex with two underaged girls on Tuesday, according to a Channel NewsAsia report.

His lawyer, Amolat Singh, told a District Court Kok committed the offences between September 2007 and April 2008 when he was a full-time national serviceman.

He invited his first victim, a 13-year-old girl, to his flat in 2007 just one year after meeting on an Internet chatroom. The pair had sex and did not contact each other after that.

His crime was only discovered when the girl was warded in the National University Hospital (NUH) on July 15 in 2008, following complaints of stomach pains and vomiting. She was pregnant and told the police she had sex with several men. After her abortion on July 31, tests indicated Kok was not the foetus’ biological father.

Just a month before, another 15-year-old girl told the police she had consensual sex with Kok on three different occasions between April 20 and May 31, 2008. The first offence was committed at West Mall shopping centre in a handicapped persons toilet.

Kok pleaded for a lighter sentence, saying he was a first-time offender and did not intend to target his victims. Mr Amolat, who said Kok will be sacked from his position, added, “They initiated and actively sought to have sexual relations with him.”

Mr Amolat also revealed, Kok would need to pay roughly S$60,000 worth of liquidated damages for breaching his contract with the National Institute of Education (NIE).

Although Kok could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined, he was jailed 15 months for carnal connection.

Last week, disgraced MOE scholar, Jonathan Wong, was expelled from the University of York in the United Kingdom after pleading guilty to 17 charges of possessing child pornography videos.

Wong is sentenced to a six-month imprisonment sentence suspended for two years – which means he will not be jailed if he does not break the law during that period.

The York Crown Court also ordered for Wong to be listed on the sex offender registry for seven years after eight months’ supervision. He is also disqualified from working with children.

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Friday, December 3, 2010

‘Sleeping girls’ molester in school nabbed

By Kai Fong – December 3rd, 2010

Police have arrested a 23-year-old student believed to be linked to a series of molest cases at a tertiary institution in Ang Mo Kio.

Dubbed the “sleeping girls” molester, the Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) student allegedly prowled the campus library, preying only on unsuspecting students who had fallen asleep at their study desks or corners, reported The Straits Times (ST).

He would allegedly approach them from the back and stroke their thighs, legs or backs, fleeing when the victims woke up.

Preliminary investigations revealed that he is believed to have molested at least four NYP students, with two incidents taking place last month.

Police arrested the suspect at his residence in Bukit Batok Street 31 on Wednesday.

Among the items seized from his home was stolen lingerie, which did not appear to belong to any of the women he is believed to have molested.

While it is not known whether the suspect is still attending classes, the school has arranged for the affected students to receive counselling.

“We are also in touch with them and their families to provide any further support and assistance,” said a spokesman from NYP, adding that it would be “inappropriate” to comment further as the case was still under investigation.

All 30 students that ST spoke to did not know about the arrest. Many were shocked to know that the molest incidents happened in public view in the school library, which they say is almost always full until it closes each weeknight at 9pm.

The library has two closed circuit television screens at the librarian’s lobby that broadcast footage of certain areas in both the lower and upper floors of the library.

But some say that they are not surprised.

“The resting corners and the cafĂ© on the lower floor are safe because the concept is very open, but I can’t say the same for the upper floor.”

“It is so crowded, he could easily have committed the act and disappeared,” said first-year manufacturing engineering student Muhammad Shakil, 17.

Several parents of NYP students have also expressed worry over the incidents.

“The school needs to step up their security. As parents, we trust them to be responsible for the students when they are in school,” said Madam Cindy Teo, 47, whose daughter is a student in NYP.

If found guilty of outrage of modesty, the suspect could be jailed up to two years, fined and caned.

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