<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>July 17, 2009
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>24 years' jail for medium <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Selina Lum
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The High Court heard that the girl's father and the man got to know each other in 2000, when they were mediums in a Chinese temple and also worked odd jobs for the same employer. --ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->FOR more than seven years, from when she was eight, a girl was sexually abused over and over by a temple medium regarded by her parents as a close family friend.
He was a 'spiritual advisor' to the child's father, who was also a temple medium.
They trusted him so much that they let him sleep in their flat on many occasions, during which time he would abuse the child.
After the couple divorced, the girl's mother left her daughter alone with him and even let him have her stay in his flat during school holidays.
On Friday, the man, now 59, admitted to multiple charges of sexually abusing the girl, now 16 years old, and was jailed for 24 years.
Married with four children aged 18 to 23, he will not be caned as he is above the age of 50.
Looking skinny and dishevelled in court, the former coffeeshop assistant faced 44 charges for offences dating from January 2001 to May last year.
Because of the years of continual abuse, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh, the child had grown into a teenager who hated herself, mutilated her body and was promiscuous.
'That the victim's own mother would unwittingly send her own daughter into the lion's den was only possible because the accused had shamelessly betrayed the trust bestowed upon him by the victim's family,' said the prosecutor.
The High Court heard that the girl's father and the man got to know each other in 2000, when they were mediums in a Chinese temple and also worked odd jobs for the same employer.
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>24 years' jail for medium <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Selina Lum
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
The High Court heard that the girl's father and the man got to know each other in 2000, when they were mediums in a Chinese temple and also worked odd jobs for the same employer. --ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->FOR more than seven years, from when she was eight, a girl was sexually abused over and over by a temple medium regarded by her parents as a close family friend.
He was a 'spiritual advisor' to the child's father, who was also a temple medium.
They trusted him so much that they let him sleep in their flat on many occasions, during which time he would abuse the child.
After the couple divorced, the girl's mother left her daughter alone with him and even let him have her stay in his flat during school holidays.
On Friday, the man, now 59, admitted to multiple charges of sexually abusing the girl, now 16 years old, and was jailed for 24 years.
Married with four children aged 18 to 23, he will not be caned as he is above the age of 50.
Looking skinny and dishevelled in court, the former coffeeshop assistant faced 44 charges for offences dating from January 2001 to May last year.
Because of the years of continual abuse, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh, the child had grown into a teenager who hated herself, mutilated her body and was promiscuous.
'That the victim's own mother would unwittingly send her own daughter into the lion's den was only possible because the accused had shamelessly betrayed the trust bestowed upon him by the victim's family,' said the prosecutor.
The High Court heard that the girl's father and the man got to know each other in 2000, when they were mediums in a Chinese temple and also worked odd jobs for the same employer.
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.
