Ex-PE teacher who kept sexually abusing underage student in hotel rooms gets jail, caning

Ex-PE teacher who kept sexually abusing underage student in hotel rooms gets jail, caning The prosecution said the man was "so emboldened by his hotel trysts" with the victim that he also committed sexual acts with her at school. SINGAPORE: A former physical education (PE) teacher who repeatedly met his underage student in hotels to sexually abuse her was sentenced on Wednesday (Sep 16) to 16 years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane. The prosecution said the 45-year-old Singaporean man was "so emboldened by his hotel trysts" with the victim that he also committed sexual acts with her at school. They fought against the defence's submission that the man's main transgression was merely in "crossing the professional boundaries of the teacher-student relationship". In sentencing, Justice Kwek Mean Luck said the offender was the victim's teacher, trusted by the victim and her parents. He had abused his position and breached the trust placed in him, taking steps to be alone with the victim and committing numerous sexual offences. Justice Kwek pointed to the harm caused to the victim, who had suicidal thoughts and nightmares, lost her appetite and engaged in self-harm. She also described her fear of males and how she had to cope with rumours surrounding her and the teacher even after going to another school. The Ministry of Education had previously told CNA that the man was no longer teaching at any school and had been suspended from February 2023. THE CASE The court imposed gag orders on the identities of the victim and the man. The name of the school cannot be published as a result. The offender pleaded guilty in July to three counts of sexual penetration of a minor, with another 12 charges taken into consideration for sentencing. The man was teaching in a secondary school at the time of the offences in 2022 and 2023 and had 18 years of teaching experience. The victim was between 14 and 15 at the time and was in the man's PE class. The man pursued her on Instagram before confessing his romantic feelings and assuring her that it was not a problem for a teacher to date a student. The man suggested meeting at a hotel. The girl was initially reluctant but trusted him and met him there, where she followed his instructions to enter the room after he had done so to avoid them being seen together. On this first visit to a hotel, they only kissed and hugged. After this, the girl said she was willing to be in a relationship with the teacher. He said he wanted to have sex with her and would wait for her to turn 16. Over the course of a few months, the teacher met the victim in hotel rooms six times, engaging in sex acts on five of these occasions. He molested her in a room during a school camp and kissed her in the school's PE room. The victim ended the relationship in January 2023 as she felt he was becoming very possessive, jealous and controlling. The man took this badly and approached the victim's older schoolmate to find out information about the victim and threatened to harm himself. The schoolmate later found out that they had been physically intimate and reported this to a teacher. When the vice-principal confronted the man, he wrote a statement confessing that he had "made out" with the victim in hotel rooms but omitted the sexual penetration. He also deleted messages he had exchanged with the victim. The girl's parents lodged a police report in February 2023. For sexual penetration of a minor in a case where the relationship is exploitative of the victim, an offender could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined or caned.