Taken from Straits Times Interactive
Nov 27, 2004
Family's 14-year saga of rape and incest ends
Granddad assaulted daughter and later 2 granddaughters, as did their stepdad
By Elena Chong
OVER two separate courts, details emerged yesterday of a tragic saga of rape and incest, spanning 14 years and endured by a woman and her two mentally retarded daughters.
At the end of it, the woman's father and her second husband drew long prison terms, as well as, in the husband's case, 24 strokes of the cane.
Yet, it was the twisted behaviour of the older man, spared the rod at 61, that had gone on longer.
Some 14 years ago, in March 1990, he had raped his 18-year-old daughter when she was just one month married: After a drink too many, he had forced himself on her in her bedroom.
Following this, for a year and a half, father and daughter would have consensual sex at least once a month until she was four or five months' pregnant, in October 1991.
She went on to give birth to two girls, in March 1992 and March 1993, whose IQ was found by a child psychiatrist to be in the moderate to mild-moderate mental retardation range.
But the old man had not mellowed.
Ten years on, in 2002, he decided he 'wanted to experience sex with a virgin' - as Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Kah Wei put it yesterday - and bore down on the older girl.
Between June and July that year, he tried to rape the then 10-year-old, then settled for making her perform oral sex on him.
He raped her in November 2002 and January last year.
Yesterday, DPP Chong called for a 'substantial' jail term, saying the man had abused his positions of trust to satisfy 'his vile urges'.
'The offences which the accused has committed against his daughter and granddaughter, his own flesh and blood, are so depraved and aggravating that they completely overshadow and outweigh any mitigating factors in this case.'
And yet he was not the only man forcing himself on his granddaughter.
The girls' mother had divorced in 1994, after her husband discovered her naked with her own father.
She married another man two years later, in September 1996, with whom she had two sons.
It was this 44-year-old man who now preyed on his two stepdaughters.
When the older girl turned 11 - already violated by her grandfather - her stepdad raped her in March last year.
Then, in June or July last year, as the two sisters were lying beside him and watching television, he forced the older girl to perform oral sex on him.
Then, after raping her, he outraged the modesty of the younger girl, then 10, who had giggled when she saw what was going on.
It was not yet over.
In Jan 16 this year, the stepfather again raped his stepdaughter and had her perform oral sex on him.
Addressing the court on sentence, DPP Ravneet Kaur noted how the stepfather had committed at least 27 sexual acts, over almost a year, against the victims - who were abused so often they stopped resisting his advances.
'It is abhorrent, the manner in which the accused treated the victims like playthings at his disposal,' she said.
The offences came to light after an aunt asked the older girl why she was scratching her private parts.
The truth came tumbling out and the horrified aunt called the girls' father. The whole 14-year saga was eventually unravelled by police investigators.
Yesterday, in their respective courtrooms, both men pleaded for leniency, saying they were sole breadwinners.
The bespectacled grandfather said that his own flesh and blood now looked down on him. He claimed he was 'not in the right state of mind' when he committed the offences and begged for forgiveness.
Justice Choo Han Teck jailed him for 22 years.
In a courtroom one storey above, the stepfather - of medium build and clad in yellow T-shirt and light-brown trousers - received a 32-year sentence and 24 strokes of the cane from Justice Tay Yong Kwang.
The two girls are now being cared for by their aunt.
No family members were in court yesterday.
EMBARRASSED, HUMILIATED, CONFUSED
SINCE their ordeal, the two young girls have had difficulty concentrating in class or mixing with friends.
In their victim impact statements, they recounted sleepless nights spent fearing what their stepfather and grandfather would do next, and feeling 'frightened and shocked' at their treatment.
Though the older girl, 12, recalls feeling disgusted and helpless when her grandfather violated her, she harboured other, simplistic fears that tug at the heartstrings: 'I was afraid that if I did not comply with his instructions or told anyone about it, then he would not take care of me. He had told me this before.'
She adds: 'Until today, whenever anyone talks to me about the attacks or if I am reminded in any way of the attacks, I cannot take it as I feel embarrassed and humiliated and will break down and cry. I also had nightmares.'
The 11-year-old, after experiencing sexual abuse, was so confused she thought it was all right to 'explore' with other boys 'by removing their pants'.
'I have been reprimanded for doing those things and this had made me feel embarrassed and humiliated,' she said.
Both girls were angry with their stepfather and grandfather, whom they had trusted and looked up to.
They expressed sadness because their family had been split and they could not see their stepbrothers.
Once, they led 'normal lives', both said.
But after the abuse they started keeping to themselves.
Sick ! Sick ! Sick!! 