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SINGAPORE: In sentencing a former secondary school teacher who had sex with his underaged student to eight years' jail on Tuesday, a district judge said these offences caused "a feeling of outrage and revulsion in the community".
"The sentence must reflect that feeling," said Judge Jasvender Kaur.
The 41-year-old man, who headed the school's design and technology department, met the girl, then 14, when she joined the Robotics Club in 2006. He wooed her with gifts, told her she was pretty and lied that his marriage was on the rocks.
The man then had sex with the girl on more than 15 occasions over an 18-month period in various places, including the school's co-curricular activities room and his car at Upper Seletar Reservoir Park.
Judge Kaur said the most serious aggravating factor in this case was that the former teacher - who cannot be identified to protect the minor - had "breached the trust reposed in him by the school, by the girl's parents and by the girl itself".
"The offender has destroyed the fundamental feeling of safety and protection that teachers entrusted with the care and education of students must provide," she said.
Judge Kaur noted that the teacher was called up by the school's management about six months after he initiated the sexual trysts.
"He lied to cover up by claiming that he was like a father to the girl. Instead of repenting and putting a stop to his unlawful and deplorable conduct ... he persisted," said the judge.
The man was sacked from the Education Service following the revelation of his relationship to the girl.
Judge Kaur was "not impressed" with the man's claim of "a romantic relationship" between the pair, noting the "wide age disparity" of 23 years.
As for the man's claim that the offences were triggered by depression, Judge Kaur felt it did not lessen the offender's responsibility.
She stressed that the "primary policy of the law is to protect the young, who can be easily influenced at an age when they are emotionally vulnerable".
"It has to be made clear to persons occupying such positions of trust, and the parents of students who are the recipients of that trust, that an abuse of it will lead to heavy sentences from the courts," she said. - TODAY
