Man pleads guilty to raping 32-year-old woman at field near Tuas West Road MRT station

Man pleads guilty to raping 32-year-old woman at field near Tuas West Road MRT station Alam Foysal and his co-accused, Ahmed Rayhan, first saw the victim in an adjacent train carriage heading towards Tuas Link. SINGAPORE: A 40-year-old man pleaded guilty on Friday (Jul 17) to raping a 32-year-old woman at a grass field near Tuas West Road MRT station after first noticing her on the same train. Alam Foysal, a Bangladeshi national, pleaded guilty to one charge of rape without her consent. A second charge of kissing the victim with intent to outrage her modesty was taken into consideration. A man who was cycling past the open field underneath Tuas Viaduct on the day of the incident saw the victim curled up on the ground with part of her buttocks exposed and blood on her head. He then called the police for assistance. A gag order has been imposed to protect the victim's identity. THE CASE The court heard that Foysal had raped the woman with another man. The co-accused is Ahmed Rayhan, a 34-year-old Bangladeshi national. Foysal and Rayhan came to Singapore in 2012 and 2014 respectively to work as welders at a shipyard. At the time of the offence, the men were both working as welders on the same construction-related project located near Tuas South. They both stayed at CDPL Tuas dormitory. At around 7pm on Mar 7, 2022, Foysal and Rayhan met up with a mutual friend near Chinese Garden MRT station and drank five bottles of wine together. Slightly after midnight on Mar 8, 2022, the two men boarded a train on the East-West Line heading towards Tuas Link. They noticed the victim, a Singaporean woman, in the adjacent train carriage. She was intoxicated. Court documents stated that both men saw her walking "erratically" up and down the aisle, sitting on the floor and standing up before taking a seat in the train carriage. Rayhan told Foysal that the victim was drunk, and the men approached the victim with Foysal going first. Rayhan tapped the woman's shoulder and sat opposite her, while Foysal sat next to the victim. They tried talking to her but she muttered incoherent words and did not respond, according to court documents. The woman then got up and sat at a different part of the train carriage. The men approached the victim again, and Foysal sat on the floor to talk to her, but got no response. When the train arrived at Tuas West Road MRT station, Rayhan and Foysal decided to bring the victim out with them. She was unable to maintain her balance or walk steadily on her own, and Foysal guided her into a standing position. He then led her down the escalator and to the gantry. The victim struggled to tap out, which got the attention of a MRT staff member. One of the men told the staff member that they had met the victim in the train. After exiting the gantry, the victim walked away from the two men but Foysal followed and guided her towards one of the MRT exits. They brought her to the open grass field near the MRT exit underneath Tuas Viaduct and sat her down the ground next to a large pillar. "Both Rayhan and Foysal were aware that the victim did not consent to any sexual activity with them, because she was intoxicated, incoherent and non-responsive to their questions to her," court documents noted. After making the victim lie down on her back, Foysal climbed on top of her and kissed her, before raping her. He did not use a condom, the court heard. Foysal then sat beside the victim, while Rahyan tried to rape the victim. The latter moved away after a few failed attempts and the pair took a taxi back to their dormitory. Both men were arrested later that evening after the police established their identities using closed-circuit television footage from cameras near Tuas West Road MRT station and at their dormitory. The victim suffered minor cuts and a fresh tear at her genitalia as a result of the rape. Sentencing for the case was adjourned. For raping a person without consent, Foysal can be jailed up to 20 years, and fined or caned.