SINGAPORE, Sept 26 — During a one-on-one training exercise, a police inspector touched his female colleague inappropriately by hugging her from behind and pushing his forearm against the centre of the woman's chest.

Abdul Gaffor Jainul Hussain, 48, was given a S$10,000 (RM34,283) fine by the court yesterday (Sept 25) after pleading guilty to two charges of using criminal force with the intent to outrage a person's modesty.

Two other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

TODAY has reached out to the Singapore Police Force for comment on his current employment status.

The female victim cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity.

The court heard that during the time of the incident, Gaffor not only held the rank of police inspector but he was also a deputy team leader. His colleague was a police sergeant then.

What happened

On November 3 in 2020, Gaffor's colleague was working the night shift and deployed to conduct patrols.

Sometime in the evening, at a pre-shift briefing, the woman and other new officers were instructed to report to Gaffor individually for their designated 45-minute time slot for what is called official administration and learning, which would happen during the early hours of November 4.

This is a form of workplace self-paced learning for police officers using topics that are set monthly by each police division.

The woman reported to Gaffor for training at around 2am and was then asked to choose from a few small pieces of folded papers that Gaffor had prepared.

On each piece of folded paper was a topic that the inspector had handwritten before the session.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Emily Koh said that these topics included first aid and police defensive tactics, which were not on the scheduled list of topics under the course for their division in November 2020.

During the training

Gaffor's colleague picked one and unfolded the paper to find the handwritten words "First Aid”.

During the first-aid training, Gaffor did not have a dummy inside the office, which would typically be used.

He then asked the woman to demonstrate on him the abdominal thrusts to be used to help a person who was choking.

After telling her that she was not doing it properly, he moved to stand behind the woman and wrapped his arms around her body with his hand clasped in front of her chest to perform an abdominal thrust on her.

As he did so, he ended up hugging his colleague from behind with the front of his body touching the back of her body, which made the woman feel shocked and violated.

The next topic that the woman picked was for police defensive tactics and she was asked by Gaffor to demonstrate some moves, which included an arm bar and front wrist lock.

As she was executing the wrist lock on Gaffor, he told her to tuck his forearm closer to her chest.

When she moved closer, he pushed his forearm against her body and made contact with the centre of her chest, which made her feel disgusted and violated again.

During the course of investigations, Gaffor admitted that he knew these two training exercises would involve bodily contact and was inappropriate but he still did not seek consent from her before doing them with her, DPP Koh said.

Court documents did not state when she reported the matter and to whom.

'Police officers held to a higher standard'

Seeking a fine of between S$5,000 and S$10,000 for each charge, DPP Koh said that even though the contact was fleeting, Gaffor had committed the offence in the course of his duties and as a police officer, he needs to be "held to a higher standard”.

However, the prosecution agreed that mitigating weight should be given to Gaffor's plea of guilt, thereby sparing his colleague from having to relieve the trauma through testifying in a trial in court.

Gaffor initially wanted to claim trial but changed his mind on Monday.

Asking for a total fine of S$7,000, defence counsel Gino Hardial Singh argued that Gaffor's contact was brief and there was no evidence that his acts were premeditated or motivated by sexual gratification.

He added that Gaffor regularly conducts in-house training for the course for officers and his female colleague was not the only officer for whom he had conducted training.

For each charge of using criminal force to outrage his colleague's modesty, Gaffor could have been jailed up to two years, fined or caned, or been punished with any combination of these punishments. ― TODAY