Man who raped and sexually assaulted mother jailed 16 years, caned 18 strokes
A man who was convicted of raping and molesting his mother was
sentenced to 16 years’ jail and 18 strokes of the cane on Wednesday
(14 March).
The 34-year-old former safety co-ordinator was expressionless as
the sentence was read out to him in the High Court. He cannot be
named to protect his mother’s identity.
The man was convicted on one count of rape, one count of aggravated
molest and one count of molest on his then-54-year-old mother after
a trial which spanned over two years.
In an impassioned speech to the court, Deputy Public Prosecutor
(DPP) Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz said, “At the very heart of this
case is the rape of a mother by her biological son – our minds
struggle to comprehend it. We could label it as depraved,
unfathomable and unthinkable.
“But for all the vastness of the English language, there is simply
no word that comes even remotely close to capturing the horror that
would have washed over the victim as she was cruelly and
relentlessly sexually assaulted by the very son she gave life to 30
years earlier,” added DPP Sharmila, who called for a jail sentence
of 18 years and 19 cane strokes for the man.
The man, who has two brothers and one half-brother, committed the
act at around 2.30am on 4 October 2013 after returning home to find
his mother alone in their one-room flat. According to the
prosecution, the son, who was intoxicated, changed into a towel
before sitting beside his mother on her bed and later making
advances on her. He then raped her twice.
After the incident, the mother left for her daughter-in-law’s home
and called her son while recording the conversation with another
mobile phone.
During the six-minute exchange, the son is heard telling his mother
“Boy say boy likes mother. This is between us.” and “I remember
everything, I remember everything, mother, I didn’t forget. I
remember. I like. I want again.”
The mother was also heard replying to her son, “Cannot, I have a
husband”. She also told him, “I love you as my son, you love me in
a different way.”
The prosecution and the defence disagreed with each other on what
the man was referring to. While the prosecution argued he was
referring to the sexual acts, the defence contested that he was
merely being sarcastic to his mother as the two had an argument
earlier.
In delivering the verdict, Judicial Commissioner Foo Chee Hock said
the case had presented the court with “two disturbing
questions”.
“First, whether a mother would falsely and cynically accuse her son
of raping her. Second, whether a son would sexually assault his own
biological mother.
“I find that the prosecution has proved each and every essential
ingredient of the three charges against you beyond a reasonable
doubt,” said the JC.
The man denied the charges during the trial, alleging, through his
lawyer, Senior Counsel Harry Elias, that he had only lifted up his
mother’s nightgown to look at her private parts in the wee hours of
the morning.
He argued that his mother had cooked up the story to get him out of
the house, which they shared with her second husband. The mother
divorced the man’s biological father, who is her first husband,
when her son was a child.
Elias pointed out that even though the incident occurred over 30
minutes, there was an absence of DNA and the mother had not
suffered any injuries. The lawyer sought a sentence of 13 years,
three months and nine strokes of the cane for the man.
However, the prosecution argued that the absence of injuries did
not mean that rape had not taken place. DPP Sharmila added that the
man’s defence was simply a “belated concoction” and a
“deliberate attempt to explain away damning evidence”.
In addition, the prosecutor said the victim was “assaulted” again
at the trial by the defence’s line of questioning.
“She learnt what it meant to be re-victimised when the defence made
the outrageous submission that she could have ‘shut the gates’ by
crossing her legs…This preposterous submission is premised on the
antediluvian notion that a woman can resist a rapist if she really
wants to. There is absolutely no room for such statements in the
21st century,” DPP Sharmila added.
During his closing submissions, Elias said the man and his two
brothers were sent to a welfare home as children. The man stayed in
the welfare home for about six years, during which his mother never
once paid a visit.
For rape, the man could have been jailed up to 20 years and/or
fined and/or caned. For aggravated molest, he could have been
jailed between two and 10 years jail and caned. For molest, he
could have been jailed up to two years and/or fined and/or
caned.
-- Yahoo! News