Man sentenced to 22 months' jail for indecent act and oral sex with 13 year old girl
Published Published 6 October 2015
Elena Chong
Court Correspondent
SINGAPORE - An unemployed man who committed an indecent act with a girl and made her perform oral sex on him was jailed for 22 months on Tuesday .
Muhammad Hafiz Zainuddin, 24, admitted to two out of five charges.
A court heard that in early March this year, the victim, aged 13, logged on to her Facebook account and discovered a friend-request from Hafiz, who used the nickname, Ardy Harrison, and whose profile consisted of photographs of a Caucasian man.
She accepted the friend request, and they began to chat. She told him her full name and that she was studying in a primary school in the east of Singapore. He said he was 18.
On March 23, the girl was at Nex shopping centre when she logged on to her Facebook account at a shop with iPads on display. She chatted with Hafiz, who asked her to meet him at Marsiling MRT station. At first she was reluctant to meet him but agreed as she was curious to find out what he looked like.
After meeting her at Marsiling MRT station, Hafiz took her to Block 162 Woodlands Street 13. They walked up to the sixth floor. There, he coaxed her into performing some sexual acts on him. They then parted.
A week later, she was with a friend at the same shop in Nex shopping mall when Hafiz chatted with her over Facebook. He asked her to meet him but she told him she could not as she was with her friend. He asked her to bring her friend along but she declined.
Pleading for leniency, Hafiz said he was remorseful and promised not to re-offend. He also wished to apologise to the victim and her family.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Michael Quilindo asked the court to impose sentences above the benchmark, pointing to the girl's age.
District Judge Liew Thiam Leng, who backdated Hafiz's sentence to Sept 22, noted the wide age gap between the parties. He said the facts showed Hafiz was instrumental in encouraging the victim in this case.
Hafiz could have been fined up to $10,000 and jailed for up to five years for the indecent act. For sexual penetration of a person under 16 years, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
