Dad Who Sexually Abused Daughter In Condo Sentenced To 28 Years In Jail, 24 Cane Strokes

A 44-year-old man who raped his young daughter and showed her pornographic videos over the course of seven and a half years when her mother was out of the country or at work was sentenced Monday to 28 years in jail and 24 strokes of the cane.

High Court judge Mavis Chionh told the court Monday that the "greatest tragedy in this case is that (the girl was) robbed of her childhood innocence by her own father," Singapore newspaper Today reported.

The man, who was from a country in Europe but is now a permanent citizen of Singapore working as a product manager, pleaded guilty before the High Court last month to three counts of rape. He had started sexually abusing his daughter when she was around 3 to 7 years old and first raped her when she was 9.

The identity of the man was not disclosed due to a gag order issued to protect his victims' identities. He is now divorced from his wife.

Another 19 charges were considered in his sentencing, including four charges of rape and three charges of sexual assault by penetration. Also considered was his possession of 296 obscene videos in his electronic devices, as per Today.

The judge said the man groomed his daughter by exposing her to pornography to "normalize, in her young mind, the rapes and sexual assaults he was perpetrating against her."

Chionh said that the man will be 61 years old when he gets released after taking into account backdating and the usual one-third remission for good behavior, Singapore-based outlet The Straits Times reported.

The abuse started at the end of 2011 in the family's rented condominium when the man started to shower with the daughter and realized he was a pedophile. The abuse allegedly became more frequent after the family moved to another condominium.

It lasted until July 2019 when the man was arrested. The daughter said she never revealed the abuse due to fear and because she did not want her parents to get divorced.

Authorities learned of the assaults after the daughter's friend, who lived in a nearby apartment, was also sexually abused by the man and revealed the incidents before her first Catholic communion in June 2019.

The man estimated that he forced his daughter to have sex with him between 10 to 20 times, The Straits Times reported.