Inmates found guilty
SINGAPORE: Their guilt established, they apologised to
the court for the severe assaults on their former cell mate.
But not once did Iryan Abdul Karim, Muhammad Hamdan Abdul Rahman
or Mohammed Zameen Abdul Manoff say sorry to the victim —
throughout the 12—day trial and on Thursday, when the 22—year—old
was with his family to hear the court’s verdict.
In the end, the prisoners’ claim that the victim had consented
to oral sex to end the beatings was not recognised under the law,
as it was "forced consent", said Justice Tay Yong Kwang, who will
sentence the trio on Monday.
The judge acquitted Iryan, however, of one charge of oral sex.
Justice Tay gave the accused — who maintained that the victim
performed oral sex on him only twice — the "benefit of the doubt",
as the victim may have been confused.
The court had heard harrowing details of how the inmates
attacked the victim, causing multiple fractures in his breastbone,
ribs and spine, and also how they made him eat faeces and perform
oral sex on them.
But evidence also painted the victim as a sexual aggressor
toward other inmates. This, Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo
told the court, should not affect the credibility of the
victim.
The latter was subjected to abuse almost on a daily basis
between April 28 and May 3 last year and was sodomised by Zameen,
his friend and "de facto mastermind" of the sadistic beatings, said
DPP Khoo.
Zameen, 21, maintained yesterday they "did not force" themselves
on the victim and were not as "sadistic" as the prosecution
suggested.
But Iryan, 21, said he did not mean to hurt the former inmate
"that badly", while Hamdan, 20, said he regretted the beatings,
which the prosecution described as "one of the worst cases of
physical abuse in recent years", motivated by "petty and senseless
reasons".
DPP S Sellakumaran said the main purpose "was to bully the
victim and break his will".
He added: "Iryan was warped enough to state during his cross
examination that the victim was ’stupid’ and ’clumsy’ because he
had dragged himself in his soiled shorts and had knocked about the
accused persons’ things when moving around the cell.
"That he would say this after causing the victim to be in the
condition that he was is proof positive they were simply finding
fault in everything and anything he did."
DPP Sellakumaran pressed for the maximum sentence — 24 strokes
of the cane, not less than 20 years imprisonment for Iryan and
Hamdan and more for Zameen — because of the trio’s "propensity for
violence".
— TODAY
