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Cao Pi
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Molester gets stiffer sentence
by Teo Xuanwei
05:55 AM Nov 24, 2010
SINGAPORE - He masqueraded as a "medicine man" who could exorcise "ghosts".
And on that pretext, Al-Habib Sheih Haji Ismail Al Mahberoh, 55, took a 13-year-old girl into the toilet in her home and fondled her breasts for five minutes.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Toh Shin Hao appealed to the High Court yesterday to stiffen the 10-month jail term imposed on Al-Habib and set a benchmark sentence for a law enacted in 2008 aimed at protecting victims below age 14 in sexual offences.
Justice V K Rajah agreed and increased Al-Habib's jail term to two years.
The court heard that Al-Habib advertised his massage services when he met the victim and her mother at a provision shop.
On the afternoon of Nov 22, 2008, Al-Habib turned up at the victim's flat after her mother requested for a massage from Al-Habib's wife.
He then tricked the girl's mother into letting him take the teenager into the kitchen toilet to check for "ghosts" in her body.
When she agreed, Al-Habib locked himself in the toilet with the girl and abused her.
The court ordered that details that could lead to the identity of the victim being revealed not be published.
DPP Toh said Al-Habib was not only a "confidence trickster" but also showed "a total lack of remorse" by claiming trial.
He said the fact that Parliament when revising the Penal Code in 2008 had increased the maximum jail term from two to five years for outrage of modesty offences committed against those under age 14 showed the seriousness of the crime.
Justice Rajah agreed that the district judge's sentence did not "adequately reflect the heinousness of the offence".
What made it more aggravating was that Al-Habib, who had a history of other offences involving deceit dating back to 1979, had committed the current offence through hoodwinking the victim and her family, he added.