Public Prosecutor v Wong Xiu Xian

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Kok Shu-en
• Judgment Date: 16 September 2024
• Neutral Citation: [2024] SGDC 237
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: District Arrest Case No 916718 of 2021 & Anor, Magistrate’s Appeal No 9119 of 2024-01
• Hearing Date: 10 October 2023,11 October 2023,12 October 2023,24 June 2024,07 May 2024,25 March 2024,08 January 2024
• Citation: [2024] SGDC 237
• Year: 2024
• Plaintiff Counsel: DPP Grace Teo Pei Rong (Attorney-General's Chambers)
• Defendant Counsel: Bernard Sahagar and Shaun Sim (Lee Bon Leong & Co)
• Published date: 21 September 2024

District Judge Kok Shu-en: Introduction

The accused is a 39-year-old Singaporean male who claimed trial to 2 charges: One charge of using criminal force to outrage the modesty of one [V] by touching V’s vagina and squeezing her breasts, and in order to commit the offence, voluntarily causing wrongful restraint to V, which is an offence under section 354A(1) of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) (“the section 354A charge”); and One charge of doing an obscene act in a public place by exposing his penis to V, which is an offence under section 294(a) of the Penal Code (“the obscene act charge”).

At the conclusion of the trial, I amended the section 354A charge to remove references to V having been touched underneath her clothing and to change the reference to V being pinned down to having been blocked by the accused’s body.

I convicted the accused on both charges and sentenced him to a global sentence of 4 years’ imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane.

The Defence has filed an appeal against both the convictions and sentences imposed.

Facts The undisputed facts

It was undisputed that the accused and V were strangers who were unacquainted before the incident on 24 August 2021 and did not have any interactions thereafter. There was also no dispute that the accused did have an encounter with V that day and that they were both the premises of the estate where V resided (“the estate”)¹ on 24 August 2021 at around 2am – in other words, the Defence did not claim that the accused had been mistaken for another person.²

From the testimonies of V and the accused, there was also convergence as to some of the general contours of the events of 24 August 2021. The first point of contact between V and the accused was outside the gate and continued up the stairs behind the side entrance for residents and at the landing on top of the stairs.

At some point, the accused caused V to fall down around the stairs. As V got up, she fell again, this time backwards into a row of bushes at the side of the landing of the stairs. The accused’s body was positioned above her whilst she was in the bushes.

After the accused exited the compound, V scolded the accused. The accused turn back and reacted to V’s scolding with a rude gesture.

V subsequently captured photographs of the accused in the vicinity of the estate, having spotted him after the incident.³

The Prosecution’s case

The Prosecution led evidence from a total of 4 witnesses. Apart from V, evidence was also led from one Quey Zhi Qiang (PW2), a doctor who examined V after the incident (PW3) and the investigation officer (PW4).

V’s evidence

At the time of trial, V was 32-year-old Chinese national. She testified that she arrived in Singapore from China in July 2021 to study, and she had been renting a place to stay at the residential estate located at the estate.

At about 2am on 24 August 2021, V was walking home alone.⁴ She was wearing a black top and white skirt that was slightly above her knees.⁵ She said she felt that someone was following her and when she turned around, she saw someone about 2 to 3 metres away from her.⁶ She said the man as wearing a red-orange top and shorts and a mask.⁷

V said she quickened her steps and as she tried to get her keys from her handbag, the person pounced on her at the area near the side gate into the estate⁸, next to the white line on the ground,⁹ by using his arms to surround her chest and collarbone area from the back.¹⁰ When he pounced on her, V said that she shouted, “what are you doing?” at him but he did not respond.¹¹

V said she then struggled to make her way toward the side gate and to tap her access card. She managed to tap the card and the gate opened.¹² After the gate opened, V tried to move up the staircases just behind the gate¹³.

As V tried to go up the stairs, she said that the person was pulling onto her, causing her to fall.¹⁴ She said that she was unable to get up as she moved from the bottom of the stairs to the top, and that the person was bent over her, using one of him arms to hold onto V’s arm while his other hand was somewhere on her waist.¹⁵

When she reached the top of the stairs, V said that the contents of her bag and her handphone had scattered all over the floor. V said that she tried to stand up to pick up her phone, when she was pushed by the person towards the plants, and she fell. She said that she fell onto the concrete bench lining the planter box at the side of the staircase landing, with the upper half of her body was in the plants.¹⁶

When describing her position at this time, V said during her examination-in-chief that she was in a half-lying position because the person was pinning down on her and she was not able to move.¹⁷ During cross-examination, she said that she had not been pinned down – she said that she had fallen backwards into the plants, so she was facing upward, while the person was bending forward though his body was not resting on hers.¹⁸ She said that she could not get up as she had used up all her strength in struggling and trying to push the person away¹⁹.

V said that when her upper body was in the plants and she was facing upwards, the accused – who was positioned above her – put his hand under her top from the collar.²⁰ She said that he first touched both her breasts²¹ with both his hands, before using only his right hand underneath the top²². He then used his left hand to touch her vagina²³ – first touching her over the underwear and then underneath the underwear, going in from the side of her thigh to touch her private part.²⁴

During cross-examination, V was confronted with a statement that was recorded from her by the investigation officer, PW4, during investigations.²⁵ It was highlighted to V that according to the statement, V said that she had been touched by the accused over her clothing – specifically that he had touched her vagina over her panties, and that he had squeezed both her breasts over the short-sleeved blouse that she was wearing. V explained that it was quite chaotic at the time of the incident - she said that he started off by touching her above the clothes and then under the clothes.²⁶ She claimed that did tell PW4 that she had also been touched underneath her clothing but said that PW4 had mistakenly omitted to record these in the statement.²⁷

Whilst the person was touching her, V said that she wanted going to report the matter to the police, to which he retorted in Mandarin “I’ve already touched you, you can call the police all you want”²⁸ in a tone that she said sounded as if he was belittling her.²⁹

After the person got up, V took the opportunity to pick up her phone and called her classmate, a person she identified as ‘Na Na’ as she did not know the number to call the police. V said that she managed to place a call through to Na Na and as she was telling Na Na that she had encountered an incident, the person turned to leave the premises of the estate via the side gate.

After the person had exited the gate had closed behind him, V stood near the railings of the compound and started to scold the accused from where she was. When the accused heard V scolding him, he turned around, took a few steps back in her direction and pulled down his shorts, exposing his penis to V.³⁰

Following this incident, V returned to her apartment at the estate and called her friend Na Na. She told Na Na that she was scared, and Na Na asked V to go over to her place.³¹ So about 10 minutes after returning to her apartment, V left the estate, planning to walk towards the main road to get a taxi.³² As she was walking down the road outside the estate, she spotted the person who had just assaulted her walking and talking on his phone and proceeded to take a photograph of him.³³

After she took the photograph, V noticed the person turn back and thinking that he had seen her, she panicked and noticing an open door of a car parked along the side of the road, she spoke the driver of the car, who was unknown to her, and told him that she had been robbed by the person she had just photographed. The driver told her to get into the car and that he would help her to go after this person. Whilst seated in the car, V took a second photograph of the person who had attacked her. ³⁴

When the person turned into a road that the driver could not turn into, V said that she thanked the driver and alighted from his car. She managed to get a taxi and went to Na Na’s house. V told the court that Na Na left Singapore and returned to China sometime in March or May 2022 and that she had since lost contact with her.

Apart from Na Na, V said that she had also told one ‘Xiao Ming’ about what had happened to her. Xiao Ming was the agent who had assisted V in applying for her visa to stay in Singapore, and she said she received a text message from him reminding her to take precautions due to the worsening Covid-19 situation.³⁵ After deliberating for a long time whether she should tell Xiao Ming about what had happened, since he was a guy, she decided to do so. Xiao Ming then told her to police report and accompanied her to do so on 25 August 2021 at about 6.39pm.³⁶

V also went for a medical check-up at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where she briefly told the doctor about the incident and was examined for injuries.³⁷ Photographs of injury marks on V were admitted into evidence³⁸ and V confirmed that these were all injuries that she sustained in the altercation with the accused.³⁹

When asked about how the incident had affected her, V said that she had been affected psychologically, though she had not sought any treatment or help. She could not sleep well, had nightmare and continued to feel depressed even up to the time of the trial. She said that talking about the incident made her feel stressed and extremely scared, and having to give testimony about the incident made her feel helpless.⁴⁰

PW2’s evidence

PW2 was a...