SINGAPORE, May 26 — When a cleaner working at Mandai Hill Camp wanted to ward off a colleague’s advances, she sprayed him with water till he walked away.
However, this did not stop He Yanjun from molesting her on more occasions, eventually leading her to complain to their supervisor and file a police report.
On Thursday (May 26), He was sentenced to six weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to two molestation charges. Four other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
The 45-year-old permanent resident, who hails from China, worked as a cook at the Singapore Armed Forces camp located along Mandai Road during his offences in 2020.
The victim, 47, cannot be named due to a gag order to protect her identity.
The court heard that He began touching her inappropriately from December 2019 onwards, such as by pinching her buttocks and hugging her from behind when nobody was looking.
She had begun work there in February 2019, while He had started working there a year earlier.
She tried to stay vigilant about his presence to avoid his touch but he was still able to catch her off-guard. Their job responsibilities sometimes overlapped, like He instructing the victim to clean food trays or mop floors, prosecutors told the court.
On Jan 17, 2020, the victim was cleaning the floor of the non-Muslim cookhouse with a spray hose. As she bent down to do so, He approached her from behind, put his forearms around her midriff and hugged her from behind.
She then angled the water hose she was using over her shoulder to spray him with water.
He let go, went in front of her and bent the hose neck to prevent more water from flowing out. She then grabbed a second water hose lying on the floor and brandished it at him, which prompted him to walk away.
He molested her twice more that month — once by placing his hands around her outside the men’s toilet.
On the other occasion, he hugged her from behind and held onto her wrist while she was in a storeroom looking for gloves.
Fearful that no one would come to her aid, she struggled to break free but he tightened his grip. She then lowered herself until she was lying on the floor.
He let go of her and walked out of the storeroom.
On Feb 14, 2020, after he had pinched her buttock, she decided to complain about him to their supervisor who initiated internal investigations and asked if she wanted to make a police report against He.
She was escorted to Bukit Panjang Neighbourhood Police Centre to do so three days later.
The prosecution sought six to eight weeks’ jail, noting that there was an element of restraint in his offences when he hugged the victim from behind and she could not free herself.
For each outrage of modesty offence, he could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or given any combination of the three. — TODAY
