Sushmita Kaur, Author at Goody Feed

One of the fundamental roles of a family is to offer unwavering support and protection to each other. Within a family unit, it is often the youngest child who stands to gain the most from the guidance and security provided by their older siblings. Unfortunately, this was not the case for a young girl. She suffered from sexual abuse from her older brother and her mother covered up the heinous acts committed by her son, instead of helping her daughter out of this horrid situation. This case first surfaced in 2020 and her brother was sentenced to 11 1/2 years in jail and seven strokes of the cane. Her mother remained out on a S$15,000 bail. All parties involved in this case cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the now, 18-year-old, daughter’s identity. The Sexual Abuse Began in 2010 The girl, her two brothers and their mother lived in a two-room HDB flat. Their parents were divorced in 2013 but their father stopped living with them in 2010. Tragically, 2010 was also the year where the abuse began. The first incident took place when the brother, who was 13 at the time, brought his five-year-old sister to a washing machine in the kitchen. Their mother discovered him nude while his sister was naked from the waist down. She asked his son what he was doing but he did not respond. She told him that she was his younger sister and he “should not do such a thing to her.” Later in the year, the brother had also started consuming pornographic animations online. When he felt aroused, he would sexually abuse his sister. He even sexually abused his sister when she was napping. On that day, their mother found semen stains on her daughter’s underwear while showering her. She asked her son if he abused his sister again to which he denied. Instead of taking any further actions, their mother solely gave him another verbal warning. In 2017, despite being aware of the abuse, their mother told her son who was 20 at the time, to sleep in the same bed as her 12-year-old daughter. He took advantage of the situation and raped his sister. Their mother caught him in the act. Later that year, the son raped his sister once again even though their mother was sleeping in the same room. He even argued with her as he was upset that she used her phone while he sexually abused her. The argument subsequently woke their mother up. Once again, she reminded him that she is his sister and asked if he was not afraid of the consequences. The Girl Fell Pregnant at the Age of 12 The victim missed her period in both October and November of 2017. Suspecting that she might be pregnant, the mother bought a pregnancy test kit for her which was tested positive. The mother brought her to a clinic to confirm her pregnancy. After which, she was advised to lodge a police report and to bring her daughter to the hospital for a full examination. Unfortunately, she did not heed their advice in an attempt to protect her son from being incarcerated. Instead, she brought her daughter to a clinic in Johor Bahru (JB) for an abortion. The doctor in JB found that the foetus was more than eight weeks old and could not perform the abortion. The mother had no other choice but to let her daughter keep the baby. To evade detection of the girl's pregnancy, her mother advised her not to attend school. Her increased absence eventually caused worry. In January 2018, the school contacted the mum to find out what was going on. The mother simply claimed that the girl’s absence was due to her feeling unwell and requested for her to be withdrawn from school. However, the school informed her that the withdrawal can only be done if she had a valid doctor’s letter. The mother then admitted that the girl was pregnant and that the father of the child was her son. Subsequently, the school informed Child Protection Services and a police report was finally lodged. The girl’s pregnancy was eventually terminated in February 2018 and further investigations found that the biological father was someone else. It turns out, the biological father was a man that she met online in 2017. She engaged in sexual acts with him, thus resulting in the pregnancy. The prosecution said that her sexualisation which led to her engaging with sexual acts at the mere age of 12 was a result of the abuse she had faced. The man responsible for her pregnancy was sentenced to eight years in jail and six strokes of cane. CNA reported that the mother pleaded guilty in court to omitting information about the criminal offences and two other charges of knowingly permitting the ill-treatment of a child. The prosecutors highlighted that the mother did not bother to check in with her children to see if her son had stopped the abuse despite it occurring since 2010. Furthermore, she took active steps to cover up the incidents even though she was legally obliged to report it. As a result, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Niranjan Ranjakunalan seeks four to five years imprisonment for the mother. However, defence lawyers, Mr Cory Wong, and Mr Josephus Tan, seek three years imprisonment, citing that the mother was born into a dysfunctional family and had poor mental health. She could be jailed for up to four years and fined for $4,000 for allowing the ill-treatment of a child and jailed for up to six months and fined for omitting to give information about an offence.