A 22-YEAR-OLD arts student who had a homosexual relationship with a minor was convicted yesterday of two counts of committing an obscene act with a girl.
This is believed to be the first case of a woman brought to court for doing so.
The accused, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the 15-year-old girl, was 19 when she committed the first offence in November 2008. The girl was then aged around 12, and it took place in Serangoon. The second offence was committed on Feb 1 the following year.
The woman pleaded guilty to both charges under the Children and Young Persons Act. If convicted, she faces a fine of $5,000 and two years’ jail.
Deputy Public Prosecutor S. Sellakumaran said the woman had met the girl in November 2007, when the victim’s schoolmate had introduced them.
A district court heard that they had started talking to each other on the phone.
Subsequently, they met face to face at the victim’s birthday party. The woman knew that the girl was only 12 at the time, and they became good friends.
The DPP said the pair got along very well. In January 2008, they started a homosexual relationship.
The court heard that the victim’s mother was strict about her movements, and the accused would pick her up from school when the mother was unable to do so.
They would then take the bus to places near the woman’s home, hugging and kissing each other on the bus when no one was around.
The woman committed the first obscene act one afternoon in November 2008 at a staircase landing of a carpark in Serangoon.
On Feb 1, 2009, they went to Sentosa and checked into a hotel room at about noon. There, they started kissing. The accused then committed the second offence and they stayed in the room until 5pm.
The matter came to light when the victim’s mother learnt of the relationship and eventually lodged a police report.
In mitigation, the accused’s lawyer, Mr Paul Tan, submitted that his client was a suitable candidate for probation, being a first offender, and was 19 years old then.
He said this was a peculiar story of two teenage lovers involved in a “mutually loving and affectionate relationship”. This was not a case of an older adult preying on a young innocent child. The incidents had happened naturally and voluntarily, he added.
District Judge Low Wee Ping postponed sentencing, pending a probation report on April 18.
