Public Prosecutor v Muhammed Ismail Bin Ariffin
| Jurisdiction | Singapore |
| Judge | James Leong Kiu Yiu |
| Judgment Date | 22 July 2008 |
| Neutral Citation | [2008] SGDC 202 |
| Court | District Court (Singapore) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Published date | 27 August 2008 |
| Plaintiff Counsel | Assistant Public Prosecutor Robert Tan and Puvaneswari Sandirasekaran |
| Defendant Counsel | Defence Counsel Marican (ACLS) |
| Citation | [2008] SGDC 202 |
| 22 July 2008 |
|
District Judge James Leong:
Introduction
1. This judgement arises from an appeal against sentence by the accused.
2. The accused in this case faced 24 charges in total. He faced two charges for Aggravated Outrage of Modesty under Sec 354A (2) of the Penal Code (Cap 224), two charges for Aggravated Outrage of Modesty under Sec 354A (1) of the Penal Code, 17 charges for Outrage of Modesty under S 354 of the Penal Code, one charge for Attempted Outrage of Modesty under Sec 354 read with Sec 511 of the Penal Code, one charge under Sec 448 of the Penal Code for House Trespass and one charge under Sec 509 of the Penal Code for Insulting a Woman's Modesty.
3. An Institute of Mental Health Report dated 1 April 2008 found the accused was not of unsound mind at the time of the offences and that he was fit to plead. The report also stated that the accused has Opiod Misuse/Mild Mental Retardation. The case was accordingly transferred to the Community Court for management. As the accused was unable to afford a lawyer, a referral was made by the court to the Association of Criminal Lawyers, who assigned a pro bono lawyer to represent the accused.
The Charges
4. The prosecution proceeded with 10 charges against the accused, to which he pleaded guilty. The proceeded charges against the accused were for one count of Aggravated Outrage of Modesty under Sec 354A (2) of the Penal Code which carries a statutory punishment of imprisonment for a term of not less than 3 years and not more than 10 years and mandatory caning, two counts of Aggravated Outrage of Modesty under Sec 354A (1) of the Penal Code that carried imprisonment of not less than 2 years and not more than 10 years and mandatory caning, six counts of Outrage of Modesty under Sec 354 of the Penal Code which provides for imprisonment which may extend to 2 years or fine or caning, or any two such punishments and one count of Insulting the Modesty of a Woman that carries imprisonment for a term which may extend to 1 year or fine or both.
The Facts
5. The Statement of Facts in relation to the proceeded charges that the accused admitted to without qualification provided thus:
“The informant is A, F/34 years old. She is a housewife and is also a victim.
2. The accused is Mohammed Ismail Bin Ariffin, M/36 years old, NRIC No.S7145966G. He is unemployed.
3. On 3 January 2008 at about 6.54am, the victim called for the Police informing that ‘A Malay man earlier came and asked me to let him smell my armpit so that he can masturbate. I just send my child to school. He is Malay man wearing white shorts and grey t-shirt covered his face. His semen still outside my house’. The location given was at Blk x Marsiling Dr #xx-xx.
4. A police patrol car was dispatched to the crime scene and upon conducting an on scene investigation; a semen swab was taken from the crime scene and registered as a case exhibit. Upon conducting follow up investigations, the accused was arrested on 12 February 2008.
FACTS PERTAINING TO THE 1st CHARGE (DAC 7904/2008)
5. The victim is A, F/34 years old. She is a housewife.
6. Investigation revealed that on 3 January 2008 at about 6.25am, the victim left home to send her child to school. She proceeded to the void deck of Blk x Marsiling Drive and waited for the school transport. When her child left for school, the victim returned home by taking the lift.
7. When she reached 9th floor, she saw the accused standing at the lift lobby with his face covered with a grey t-shirt which he was wearing. The accused then approached the victim and informed her that he wanted to suck her arm pit and that he has not release his sperm for three years. The victim shouted for help but the accused warned her not to shout. The accused escorted the victim to the staircase landing between 9th and 10th floor of the said block. While at the staircase landing, the accused demanded the victim to lift up her left arm and he sucked the victim's armpit. The victim was crying when the accused was sucking her arm pit. At the same time the victim also noticed that the accused was masturbating. Shortly the accused stopped and informed the victim that he had ejaculated. After which the accused left the location and the victim immediately telephoned the Police.
8. It was established that on 3 January 2008 at about 6.25am, between the 9th floor and 10th floor staircase landing of Blk x Marsiling Dr, Singapore, the accused did use criminal force on the victim intending to outrage her modesty, to wit, by sucking her left arm pit and masturbating himself and the accused had thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 354 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.
FACTS PERTAINING TO THE 2nd CHARGE (DAC 9030/2008)
9. The victim is B, F/20 years old. She is employed as an admin assistant.
10. Investigation revealed that on 5 February 2008 at about 11.15pm, the victim was walking back home from work. When she was waiting for the lift at the ground floor lift landing of Blk x Marsiling Lane, she noticed the accused was walking towards her direction. When the victim stepped into the lift, the accused followed her from behind. Thinking nothing of it, the victim continued to listen to music from her handphone.
11. When the lift door opened at the 3d floor, the victim walked out from the lift and was walking along the corridor towards the end of the block where her apartment is located. She was not aware that the accused was following her as she was engrossed with talking on her handphone. Just as she was climbing the staircase up towards the 4th floor, she felt someone touching in between her buttocks. She turned around and saw the accused behind her. The accused smiled at her before fleeing down the staircase. The victim contacted the Police subsequently.
12. It was established that on 05 February 2008 at about 11.15pm, at the 3d floor staircase landing of Blk x Marsiling Lane, Singapore, the accused did use criminal force on the victim intending to outrage her modesty, to wit, by touching in between her buttocks, and the accused had thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 354 (1) of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.
FACTS PERTAINING TO THE 3rd CHARGE (DAC 9031/2008)
13. The victim is C, F/38 years old. She is a housewife.
14. Investigations revealed that on 9 November 2007 at about 4.30am, the victim woke up and prepared to send her child to school. At about 5.40am, the victim left home to send her child to school. The child normally takes the school transport from the void deck of Blk x Woodlands Dr 60. As the victim was waiting for the school transport to come, she noticed the accused walking out from the multi storey car park of Blk x Woodlands Dr 60. While walking towards her direction, the accused was behaving suspiciously by hiding behind pillars at the void deck of other blocks. Thinking that the accused was of unsound mind, she ignored him.
15. After the victim's son boarded the school transport, the victim headed for home by taking the lift. However just as the door was about to close, the victim saw the accused walking towards the lift. As victim was afraid, she left the lift and at the same time hearing the accused saying in Malay that he was taking the same lift as her. The victim went to stand near the central rubbish chute of her block and called out to the driver of the school transport to come and assist her. By then, the accused had used his hand to touch the victim's buttocks. He then fled towards Blk x Woodlands Dr 60.
16. It was established that on 9 November 2007 at about 5.40am, near the central rubbish chute of Blk x Woodlands Dr 60, Singapore, the accused did use criminal force on the victim intending to outrage her modesty, to wit, by using his hand to touch her buttock, and the accused had thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 354 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.
FACTS PERTAINING TO THE 5th CHARGE (DAC 9033/2008)
17. The victim is D, F/51 years old. She is employed as a production operator. She is residing at Blk x Marsiling Road #xx-xx.
18. Investigations revealed that on 26 November 2007 at about 7.00pm, the victim was alone at home and was cooking when she heard someone knocking on her main door. When the victim opened the door, she saw the accused. The accused pretended to be looking for someone and the victim told him that there was no such person. When the victim was closing the main door, the accused suddenly pushed the door opened resulting in the victim falling down on the floor. The accused entered the victim's house and closed the main door, causing wrongful restrain to the victim, who could not escape.
19. While the victim was on the floor, the accused demanded for sex with her as he claimed that he was not able to release his sperm for the past 5 months. When the victim informed him that she was having her menses, the accused asked to suck the victim's armpit instead. He subsequently went on to suck the victim's right armpit and at the same time masturbated himself in the presence of the victim. When the accused ejaculated, he left the victim's house as the victim informed him that her husband was on the way home.
20. It was established that on 26 November 2007 at about 7.00pm, at Blk x Marsiling Road #xx-xx, Singapore, the accused did use criminal force on the victim intending to outrage her modesty, to wit, by sucking her right arm pit and masturbating in front of her, and in the commission of this offence, the accused had caused wrongful restrain to the victim and the accused had thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 354A(1) of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.
FACTS PERTAINING TO THE 7th CHARGE (DAC 9035/2008)
21. The victim is E, F/37 years old, residing at Blk x Woodlands Dr 60 #xx-xx. She is unemployed.
22. On 13 December 2007 at 3.20pm, the victim was walking home alone. As she was entering lift B of Blk x Woodlands Dr 60, the accused entered the lift together with her. The victim...
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