A 32-year-old Bangladeshi construction worker was sentenced to 11 years’ jail and nine strokes of the cane on Wednesday after he confessed midway through his trial to raping a Chinese tourist in Singapore, reports Channel NewsAsia.
Hossain Anowar pleaded guilty to one charge of rape. A second charge of rape was taken into account during sentencing.
The High Court heard Anowar had knocked on the 44-year-old victim’s door at about 11am on Feb 29, 2016.
The woman was in Singapore to visit her husband, who worked here, but had been alone in their room at a Geylang lodging house when Anowar knocked on their door, brandishing a toothbrush.
She thought Anowar wanted some toothpaste, so went into the common toilet to get some.
Anowar followed her in and locked the door before he grabbed her, pulled her shorts and panties off, and raped her.
“He exploited the victim’s generosity and neighbourliness, and attacked her after she tried to offer assistance to him,” the prosecutor said.
When Anowar unlocked the door and the woman tried to escape, he grabbed her and pulled her back into her room, where he raped her again.
“The victim would have glimpsed the false hope that her ordeal was over … this hope was cruelly dashed when (Anowar) went after her (and raped her again),” Ms Kavita said.
She called for a 12-year jail term and nine strokes of the cane, pointing to aggravating factors such as the repeated rape of the victim and the “momentously destructive” effects of the ordeal on the woman.
Her marriage has suffered, the prosecutor said. The victim’s husband blames himself for flying his wife to Singapore to visit him, and the victim feels her husband blames her “for not fighting back”, the High Court heard.
In a statement, the woman said she has not revealed what happened to her 21-year-old son.
“I will never tell him,” she said. “I don’t want my son to carry the same burden all his life. Let me shoulder this alone. It would be shameful to tell people what happened to me,” she wrote.The episode has also left the couple in financial difficulties, with the husband leaving his well-paying job in Singapore to return to China, where he earns “a fraction of his previous income”, the prosecution said.
VICTIM ANSWERED THE DOOR IN SKIMPY OUTFIT: DEFENCEAnowar’s lawyers said he “never planned” to rape the woman. He knocked on the door intending to borrow some toiletries, but became aroused when she answered the door “wearing heels, a tight pair of shorts and a top without a bra”.
“(Anowar) had acted on impulse and raped her in the toilet,” his lawyer Pradeep Pillai said, calling for a sentence of not more than 10 years’ jail and six strokes of the cane.
In mitigation, Mr Pillai pointed out that Anowar, who has worked in Singapore for nine years, has never committed a crime here and had pleaded guilty on the second day of the trial.
The prosecution, however, argued Anowar did not plead guilty out of remorse but after the victim testified against him, and after he “humiliated” her on the stand by claiming that she had solicited sex in exchange for money.
“I don’t know how to tell you exactly how I feel when I heard that,” the woman wrote. “I was very angry. He violated my body and he even dare(s) to insult my character.”For rape, Anowar could have been jailed for up to 20 years and caned.
Source: Channel NewsAsia