SINGAPORE: A 59-year-old rope skipping coach is on trial for allegedly raping a 13-year-old student repeatedly at his Tampines home in 2008 and 2009.
Roger Yue Jr, then the president of Rope Skipping Singapore, is also accused of sexually assaulting the teenager on multiple occasions, including with a skipping rope and a vibrator, and making the girl perform oral sex on him.
At the opening of his trial on Tuesday (Nov 21), Yue denied the seven charges against him, including two for rape and five for sexual penetration of a minor.
The victim, who testified against Yue behind closed doors on Tuesday morning, cannot be named due to a gag order.
Yue allegedly sexually abused the teenager over two years, from 2008 until 2010, when she “finally stopped associating with him”, Deputy Public Prosecutors Winston Man and Nicholas Lai said.
The prosecutors said the victim will testify that she met the coach in 2005, when he started to coach her school’s rope skipping team.
Yue subsequently invited the victim to join his “private" competitive rope skipping team known as the Jumping Jewels, and also sought her help to coach several other skipping teams, the prosecutors said in an opening statement.
“It was in the context of this relationship with the victim that (Yue) committed the offences against (her) at his now defunct studio, at his home in Tampines, and at (a secondary school),” they told the court.
The victim lodged a police report against Yue four years later in April 2014, after confiding in her polytechnic lecturer and counsellor.
The prosecutors will call on 15 witnesses to prove their case against Yue.
They said Yue had made “crucial admissions” to the police in May 2014, and to an Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist at a psychiatric assessment in August and September 2014. Yue had also “reiterated some of these admissions to the police … (in) August 2015”, it added.
If convicted of rape or sexual penetration of a minor under 16, Yue faces up to 20 years’ jail on each charge. As he is above 50, he cannot be caned.
Another 41 charges against Yue – all involving the same victim – will be dealt with at a later date.
These include more than 20 charges for sexual penetration of a minor and more than 10 charges under the Children and Young Persons Act for committing indecent acts with a child.
In addition to allegedly sexually assaulting the girl in public, including at a public carpark at Tampines, an abandoned building along Lavender Street, the pagoda at Chinese Garden and in the bushes outside Bedok MRT station, Yue is also accused of taking photographs of her in the nude.
On one occasion in 2008 at Lakeside MRT station, Yue allegedly told the girl to change into a tight-fitting dress and to remove her bra and panties.
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...aping-13-year-old-assaulting-her-with-9425306
