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WEARING a cap that covered the top half of his face, Thangavelu Tamilselvam would make his rounds in Woodlands on his bicycle to look for potential victims to molest.
The 23-year-old construction worker from India was staying at a dormitory in Woodlands E1 Industrial Park when he sought women or girls aged below 30 who wore shorts or skirts.
Over 19 days in May, he molested five victims, aged 10 to 30, in HDB lifts. Yesterday, he was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to be given 12 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to three charges.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan Gohulabalan told the court that on May 18, Thangavelu struck up a conversation with a 10-year-old girl at the lift lobby of a block in Woodlands Ring Road before rushing into the lift as the door was about to close.
Closed-circuit television footage in the lift showed him putting his hands on the victim’s face and shoving her against the lift wall. He then hugged and kissed her but she put up a struggle and pushed him away. He was seen fleeing on his bicycle.
Two days later, he molested a 17-year-old girl in a lift, also in Woodlands.
Then, on May 30, the DPP said Thangavelu followed a 15-year-old girl into a lift and touched her breast. When the lift door opened, she dashed out and shouted for help.
For outraging modesty in a lift and causing wrongful restraint, Thangavelu could have been sentenced to between three and 10 years’ jail and caning on each charge.
