Public Prosecutor v Koh Rong Guang

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Audrey Lim JC
• Judgment Date: 11 May 2018
• Neutral Citation: [2018] SGHC 117
• Court: High Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: Criminal Case No 80 of 2017
• Year: 2018
• Published date: 17 May 2019
• Hearing Date: 18 January 2018,26 April 2018,19 March 2018,24 January 2018,19 January 2018,23 January 2018,16 January 2018,17 January 2018
• Plaintiff Counsel: David Khoo and Sruthi Boppana (Attorney-General's Chambers)
• Defendant Counsel: Choh Thian Chee Irving and Kor Wan Wen, Melissa (M/s Optimus Chambers LLC)
• Subject Matter: Criminal Law,Offences,Rape,Criminal procedure and sentencing,Sentencing,Sexual offences
• Citation: [2018] SGHC 117

Audrey Lim JC: Introduction

The Accused claimed trial to 12 charges, including four rape charges committed against one V who was then 13 years old. The charges pertained to incidents which occurred over five separate occasions, some of which involved other complainants (Fu, Ng and Tan).

The charge relating to the first occasion (“1st Occasion”) is as follows:

(1st Charge)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, sometime between November and December 2013, on the 1st occasion, at the staircase of K-Box Entertainment Outlet at Choa Chu Kang Centre located at level 5 of 309 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4, Singapore, did penetrate with your penis the vagina of [V] (Date of Birth: [x].08.2000), a woman then under 14 years of age, without her consent, and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 375(1)(b) and punishable under Section 375(3)(b) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

The charges relating to the second occasion (“2nd Occasion”) are as follows:

(2nd Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, sometime between end 2013 and early 2014, at the staircase of K-Box Entertainment Outlet at Choa Chu Kang Centre located at level 5 of 309 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4, Singapore, did penetrate with your penis the mouth of [V] …, a woman then under 14 years of age, without her consent, and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 376(1)(a) and punishable under Section 376(4)(b) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

(3rd Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, sometime between end 2013 and early 2014, at the staircase of K-Box Entertainment Outlet at Choa Chu Kang Centre located at level 5 of 309 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4, Singapore, did penetrate with your penis the vagina of [V] …, a woman then under 14 years of age, without her consent, and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 375(1)(b) and punishable under Section 375(3)(b) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

(4th Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, sometime between end 2013 and early 2014, at the staircase of K-Box Entertainment Outlet at Choa Chu Kang Centre located at level 5 of 309 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4, Singapore, did commit an indecent act with a child, [V]…, a female then below the age of 16 years old, to wit, by making [V] strip naked and taking a photograph of her naked body, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 7(a) of the Children and Young Persons Act (Cap 38, 2001 Rev Ed).

(5th Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, sometime between end 2013 and early 2014, at the staircase of K-Box Entertainment Outlet at Choa Chu Kang Centre located at level 5 of 309 Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4, Singapore, did commit criminal intimidation to wit, by threatening to cause injury to [V] by hitting the wall with a spanner close to her face, with intent to cause alarm to her, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 506 (1st limb) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

The charges relating to the third occasion (“3rd Occasion”) are as follows:

(6th Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, sometime between end 2013 and early 2014, at a staircase of Blk 672A Choa Chu Kang Crescent, Singapore, did penetrate with your penis the vagina of [V] …, a woman then under 14 years of age, without her consent, and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 375(1)(b) and punishable under section 375(3)(b) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

(7th Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, sometime between end 2013 and early 2014, at a staircase of Blk 672A Choa Chu Kang Crescent, Singapore, did commit criminal intimidation, to wit, by threatening one [Ng], [Tan] and [Fu] with a knife and warning them not to tell anyone about the rape that they had witnessed, with intent to cause alarm to them, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 506(1st limb) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

The charges relating to the fourth occasion (“4th Occasion”) are as follows:

(8th Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, on 25 January 2014, at a staircase of a HDB block in the vicinity of NTUC Foodfare located at Blk 673B Choa Chu Kang Crescent, Singapore, did voluntarily cause hurt to [Fu], to wit, by punching the face and kicking the body of [Fu], causing him bodily pain, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 323 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

(9th Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, on 25 January 2014, at a staircase of a HDB block in the vicinity of NTUC Foodfare located at Blk 673B Choa Chu Kang Crescent, Singapore, did commit criminal intimidation, to wit, by threatening to cause injury by hitting [Fu] and [V] with a brick, with the intent to cause alarm to them both, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 506 (1st limb) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

(10th Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, on 25 January 2014, at a staircase of a HDB block in the vicinity of NTUC Foodfare located at Blk 673B Choa Chu Kang Crescent, Singapore, did penetrate with your penis the vagina of [V] …, a woman then under 14 years of age, without her consent, and you have thereby committed an offence under Section 375(1)(b) and punishable under Section 375(3)(b) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

(11th Charge) (Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, on 25 January 2014, at a staircase of a HDB block in the vicinity of NTUC Foodfare located at Blk 673B Choa Chu Kang Crescent, Singapore, did procure the commission of an indecent act by one [Fu] (Male/ then 16 years old / D.O.B.: [y].02.1997) with a child, [V] (Female / then 13 years old / D.O.B.: [x].08. 2000), to wit, by directing [Fu] to stand behind [V], with his pants unzipped, while her buttocks were exposed, in order to take sexually explicit photographs, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 7(a) of the Children and Young Persons Act (Cap 38, 2001 Rev Ed).

Finally, the charge relating to the fifth occasion (“5th Occasion”) is as follows:

(12th Charge)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, on 19 January 2014, in Singapore, did circulate an obscene object to [Fu], who was then 16 years old …, to wit, by sending [Fu] a photograph of [V’s] naked body via a Whatapp message, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 293 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

At the conclusion of the trial, I found that the Prosecution had proved beyond a reasonable doubt the 2nd to the 6th charges and the 8th to the 12th charges, and I convicted the Accused on those charges. I acquitted the Accused on the 1st charge as I was not satisfied that the Prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt as to that charge. As for the 7th charge, although I was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the Accused had committed the offence vis-a-vis Ng and Tan, there was a reasonable doubt as to whether Fu was present at the material time. I thus amended the charge as follows and convicted the Accused on the amended charge:

(7th Charge) (Re-Amended)

That you, Koh Rong Guang, sometime between end 2013 and early 2014, at a staircase of Blk 672A Choa Chu Kang Crescent, Singapore, did commit criminal intimidation, to wit, by threatening one [Ng] and [Tan] with a knife and warning them not to tell anyone about the rape they had witnessed, with intent to cause alarm to them, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 506 (1st limb) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed).

For the purposes of sentencing, the Accused admitted to seven other charges and agreed to have them taken into consideration, namely: Two charges of using criminal force, punishable under s 352 of the Penal Code; One charge of rioting, punishable under s 147 of the Penal Code; One charge of voluntarily causing hurt (together with another person), punishable under s 323 read with s 34 of the Penal Code; One charge of criminal intimidation, punishable under s 506 (1st limb) of the Penal Code; and Two charges under the Films Act (Cap 107, 1998 Rev Ed) for possession of video files without a valid certificate and for possession of obscene films respectively.

I sentenced the Accused to a total of 28 years’ imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane (see [122]–[123] below). The Accused has appealed against both conviction and sentence.

The Prosecution’s case

The Prosecution’s main witnesses were V, Fu, Tan, Ng and Victoria, whose testimonies I set out briefly below. The evidence of other witnesses will be dealt with where necessary in my findings.

V’s testimony

V came from a broken home, with an abusive father. Because of this, she would leave home shortly after returning from school in the afternoon and stay out till late at night. In 2013, V spent a lot of time at Lot 1 Shopping Centre (“Lot 1”) and became acquainted with the Accused, a gang leader, and his friends including Fu, Tan and Kim.

In relation to the 1st Occasion, sometime in the afternoon of November or December 2013, V was smoking at the staircase landing of the K-Box Entertainment Outlet (“KBox”) on level 5 of the building next to Lot 1, which V referred to as “Lot 2”, when she saw the Accused. He told V that he wanted to settle a conflict between V and XW (Fu’s then girlfriend), and told his friends to leave the staircase landing so that he could speak to V alone. After the Accused’s friends left, the Accused pinned V to the ground. She kicked him and struggled, but to no avail as he was much stronger. He then proceeded to pull down her shorts, unzipped his pants and raped her (1stcharge). This was the first time V was alone with the Accused.

The 2nd Occasion occurred between end 2013 and early 2014, although V could not recall the exact date.¹ Whilst she was at Lot 1, Ng and Kim² came along and invited her to smoke with them, and they proceeded to Lot 2. At...