18years sentence in 2002, this paedo shiuld be released... bloody hell, is he in our heartland hunting for fresh kills ?
Straits Times, Singapore, 3 August 2002
Molest terror blows chance to reform
His life was back on track but JC student returned to crime; judge passes sentence of 18 years, 12 strokes
By Elena Chong
Court Correspondent
THREE years ago, then-16-year-old Siddharth Mujumdar made the news for molesting a string of young girls near his home and was dubbed the Terror of Yishun.
His lawyer pleaded then for the bright Secondary 4 boy to be put on probation, but Chief Justice Yong Pung How agreed with the district judge's sentence of reformative training, hoping it would 'shake him up'.
For a while, it seemed to have worked.
His principal and teachers at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) supported him, he did well in his O levels, and he got into Catholic Junior College after his release at the end of 2000.
Yesterday, it all fell apart.
He was back in the High Court for preying on three girls, aged nine and 10. He had forced two of them to perform oral sex on him.
This time, he was sent to jail for 18 years, and ordered to be caned 12 times.
His mother, a Bombay-trained doctor, sank her head between her knees when Judicial Commissioner Choo Han Teck pronounced the sentence. The youth's father was ill and not in court.
Siddharth went back to his old ways in October last year, just 10 months after being released from the Reformative Training Centre and while he was still under supervision.
His family had moved to Simei, and that was where he struck, cornering his young victims at staircase landings and corridors in HDB blocks.
On Oct 3 last year, he waylaid a 10-year-old and molested her.
Two months later, he tricked a nine-year-old into accompanying him before attacking her.
On Jan 15, he found his third victim, a 10-year-old.
In all three cases, he used force, grabbing the girls and pulling their hair. He threatened to kill them if they did not do as he said.
On Jan 21, he was arrested at home, after one of the girls identified him from a school publication.
In remand since his arrest, Siddharth pleaded guilty yesterday to four charges of oral sex and aggravated molest.
The plea for leniency by his lawyer, Senior Counsel R. Palakrishnan, was much the same as that put up three years ago: That the only child of an educated and respectable family had been greatly affected by his paternal grandmother's murder in India in January 1994 and the family's subsequent move to Singapore.
And that the bright young man deserved a chance to make the best use of his life. Also, that his victims did not suffer permanent or long-term emotional harm.
Consultant psychiatrist Gwee Kok Peng reported that Siddharth had problems managing his emotions and sexuality, and dealing with his parents' expectations.
But Deputy Public Prosecutors Lim Yew Jin and Eugene Lee Yee Leng wanted Siddharth locked up for a long time.
DPP Lim described him as an 'inveterate menace' who had not learnt his lesson and clearly showed a 'propensity to commit sexual offences'.
JC Choo said during sentencing that it was a pity that a bright young man would spend 'the bloom of his youth' and such a long time behind bars.
'But it will be a greater tragedy if, upon release, you do not correct yourself because you may then need to spend the rest of your life in prison,' he added.
That was something the mother of one of the victims feared, when told last night of the 18-year jail term.
Noting that Siddharth would be in his 30s when freed, she said: 'He is a menace to society. What if he commits the same kind of offence against young children then?'
SADDENED: The man who tried to help
THE man who gave young molester Siddharth Mujumdar a second chance was shocked and saddened to learn that the youth had returned to his bad old ways.
Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) principal Ong Teck Chin told The Straits Times yesterday: 'He is a bright boy. And in school, he did not cause any problems and was, in fact, a polite and well-behaved boy. We had hoped that he had changed and was back on the right track.'
Dr Ong took some flak for standing by the teenager after he was convicted in 1999. He had allowed Siddharth, then a Secondary 4 student, to remain in the independent school pending his appeal, despite rumblings from parents and old boys who felt that publicity from the trial would harm the school.
When the boy lost his appeal in May 1999 and was sent for reformative training, his teachers sent him notes and practice test papers to help him prepare for the O-levels.
He went on to score three distinctions, doing well enough to enter a junior college. He joined Catholic Junior College last year, after leaving the Reformative Training Centre.
He was a courteous student who got on well with his classmates, said General Paper teacher Meera Gopal. In a note read out yesterday by his lawyer, Mr R. Palakrishnan, she said that he had an intellectual bent, was well-versed in world affairs and a persuasive and eloquent debater. 'He is intelligent and shows a level of maturity beyond his age,' she said.
The college declined to comment yesterday, beyond saying that the former-principal, Sister Maria Lau, knew of the youth's previous offences.
Straits Times, Singapore, 3 August 2002
Molest terror blows chance to reform
His life was back on track but JC student returned to crime; judge passes sentence of 18 years, 12 strokes
By Elena Chong
Court Correspondent
THREE years ago, then-16-year-old Siddharth Mujumdar made the news for molesting a string of young girls near his home and was dubbed the Terror of Yishun.
His lawyer pleaded then for the bright Secondary 4 boy to be put on probation, but Chief Justice Yong Pung How agreed with the district judge's sentence of reformative training, hoping it would 'shake him up'.
For a while, it seemed to have worked.
His principal and teachers at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) supported him, he did well in his O levels, and he got into Catholic Junior College after his release at the end of 2000.
Yesterday, it all fell apart.
He was back in the High Court for preying on three girls, aged nine and 10. He had forced two of them to perform oral sex on him.
This time, he was sent to jail for 18 years, and ordered to be caned 12 times.
His mother, a Bombay-trained doctor, sank her head between her knees when Judicial Commissioner Choo Han Teck pronounced the sentence. The youth's father was ill and not in court.
Siddharth went back to his old ways in October last year, just 10 months after being released from the Reformative Training Centre and while he was still under supervision.
His family had moved to Simei, and that was where he struck, cornering his young victims at staircase landings and corridors in HDB blocks.
On Oct 3 last year, he waylaid a 10-year-old and molested her.
Two months later, he tricked a nine-year-old into accompanying him before attacking her.
On Jan 15, he found his third victim, a 10-year-old.
In all three cases, he used force, grabbing the girls and pulling their hair. He threatened to kill them if they did not do as he said.
On Jan 21, he was arrested at home, after one of the girls identified him from a school publication.
In remand since his arrest, Siddharth pleaded guilty yesterday to four charges of oral sex and aggravated molest.
The plea for leniency by his lawyer, Senior Counsel R. Palakrishnan, was much the same as that put up three years ago: That the only child of an educated and respectable family had been greatly affected by his paternal grandmother's murder in India in January 1994 and the family's subsequent move to Singapore.
And that the bright young man deserved a chance to make the best use of his life. Also, that his victims did not suffer permanent or long-term emotional harm.
Consultant psychiatrist Gwee Kok Peng reported that Siddharth had problems managing his emotions and sexuality, and dealing with his parents' expectations.
But Deputy Public Prosecutors Lim Yew Jin and Eugene Lee Yee Leng wanted Siddharth locked up for a long time.
DPP Lim described him as an 'inveterate menace' who had not learnt his lesson and clearly showed a 'propensity to commit sexual offences'.
JC Choo said during sentencing that it was a pity that a bright young man would spend 'the bloom of his youth' and such a long time behind bars.
'But it will be a greater tragedy if, upon release, you do not correct yourself because you may then need to spend the rest of your life in prison,' he added.
That was something the mother of one of the victims feared, when told last night of the 18-year jail term.
Noting that Siddharth would be in his 30s when freed, she said: 'He is a menace to society. What if he commits the same kind of offence against young children then?'
SADDENED: The man who tried to help
THE man who gave young molester Siddharth Mujumdar a second chance was shocked and saddened to learn that the youth had returned to his bad old ways.
Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) principal Ong Teck Chin told The Straits Times yesterday: 'He is a bright boy. And in school, he did not cause any problems and was, in fact, a polite and well-behaved boy. We had hoped that he had changed and was back on the right track.'
Dr Ong took some flak for standing by the teenager after he was convicted in 1999. He had allowed Siddharth, then a Secondary 4 student, to remain in the independent school pending his appeal, despite rumblings from parents and old boys who felt that publicity from the trial would harm the school.
When the boy lost his appeal in May 1999 and was sent for reformative training, his teachers sent him notes and practice test papers to help him prepare for the O-levels.
He went on to score three distinctions, doing well enough to enter a junior college. He joined Catholic Junior College last year, after leaving the Reformative Training Centre.
He was a courteous student who got on well with his classmates, said General Paper teacher Meera Gopal. In a note read out yesterday by his lawyer, Mr R. Palakrishnan, she said that he had an intellectual bent, was well-versed in world affairs and a persuasive and eloquent debater. 'He is intelligent and shows a level of maturity beyond his age,' she said.
The college declined to comment yesterday, beyond saying that the former-principal, Sister Maria Lau, knew of the youth's previous offences.
