A 41-YEAR-OLD Singaporean port worker who pulled a Chinese
national into his rented room in Geylang and raped her was sent to
jail for eight years and ordered to be caned 10 strokes on
Monday.
K. Mahendran will also have to serve another two weeks in prison
for a separate incident - committed two months after the rape - in
which he punched a hotel cleaner who was trying to wake him up
after he had spent the night with a prostitute.
Although he is officially registered as living in a Housing
Board flat, Mahendran had been living in a rented room in Geylang
since early April last year.
Also staying in the same unit was a 25-year-old Chinese woman
who came to Singapore in March last year on a social visit pass,
which was later extended to June.
The court heard that she was here to visit her friend, a
Singaporean man, but moved out of his home at the end of May after
a quarrel and ended up renting a bed in a room in the
apartment.
On the afternoon of June 2, the pair bumped into each other in
the balcony. Mahendran, with only a towel around his waist, called
out to her. She did not understand him so she told him 'no, no' and
went back to her room.
Later, as she was about to open her room door to go out,
Mahendran, who was now naked, dragged her into his room, closed the
door and raped her.
The woman later fled the room and called the police at about
3pm.
Released on police bail after his arrest, Mahendran hired a
prostitute on Aug 13, had sex with her at a Sims Avenue hotel and
fell asleep.
The prostitute got a 50-year-old cleaner to help her wake him
up, but Mahendran flew into a rage and punched him. The prostitute
called the police.
--ST