Crime pays in kind. The rotan kind.
In a bizarre attempt to disguise himself, he took off his clothes, covered his head with a T-shirt and peeped into the bathroom where his unsuspecting victim, a 16-year-old girl, was taking a shower. He then molested her when she tried to chase him out of the house.
For his offences, Tan Wee Beng, 29, was on Monday (Sep 8) sentenced to 13 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane.
On Jan 3, Tan was walking along the corridors of a Housing and Development Board flat in central Singapore when he noticed that the door to the victim’s unit had been left open. The metal gate was closed, but unlocked.
Tan took off his clothes and used a T-shirt to cover his head before entering the flat. The girl, who cannot be named because of a gag order, was showering, while her younger sister was watching television in the living room.
Ignoring the sister’s shouts when she saw him, Tan stood on a stool to peep at the victim in the bathroom. When the victim saw him, she wrapped herself in a towel and tried to push Tan out of the flat. Tan resisted and scratched her in the commotion.
He then molested her before running away. Tan surrendered himself after local newspapers published screenshots of him taken from a lift’s closed-circuit television footage, which were released by the police.
The prosecution pressed three charges against Tan for insulting the victim’s modesty, voluntarily causing hurt and using criminal force on her with intent to outrage her modesty.
He could have been jailed up to two years, fined and caned.
