Singapore rapist unfit for caning due to spine problem given seven more months in jail

SINGAPORE, Aug 15 — A 48-year-old man convicted of raping a woman he met at a karaoke lounge after breaking into her home was handed another seven months’ jail yesterday.

Yap Pow Foo was sentenced to 17 years’ jail and 16 strokes of the cane last year after being convicted of a charge each of rape and housebreaking.

However, he was “certified permanently unfit” for caning by the prisons, court documents showed. In a medical memo dated June 28 this year, Yap was found to have a degenerative disc disorder where the nerves at a part of his spine are compressed and cause pain.

During yesterday’s hearing, the prosecution sought eight months’ jail in lieu of caning. The defence, though, asked that there be no extra time spent in jail.

In his brief oral remarks, Justice Tan Siong Thye said that Yap’s offences “require retributive and deterrent effect in the sentence and that was why caning was imposed”.

“In the circumstances, it is necessary to substitute caning with a term of imprisonment.”

He then sentenced Yap to seven more months in jail.

The victim, a 40-year-old from China, cannot be named due to a court order protecting her identity.

What happened

On January 29 in 2017, the victim was at a karaoke lounge in Bugis with some friends to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Towards the end of the night, Yap joined them and got to meet the victim for the first time.

Around 12.45am, he then drove some of the group — including the heavily intoxicated victim — home. He first dropped her off and drove the rest back.

Later, at around 3am, he went back to the victim’s home and broke in by retrieving her keys, which had been slipped underneath the door.

He then raped the unconscious victim in her bedroom, though she woke up in the midst of the assault.

Yap left her home at around 3.45am. The victim then called the police about 15 minutes after he left.

The police took her to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital for a medical examination. When she returned home, Yap contacted her and tried to offer a monetary compensation of up to S$50,000 (RM168,347).

He also was “prepared to marry her if she so desired”, court documents showed.

Yap’s lawyers argued during the trial that the victim was sober and that the sex was consensual.

Yap claimed that he had a “phobia” of the police and that held him back from telling the truth.

In his earlier judgement following the trial, Justice Tan described Yap’s actions as “baffling”.

“If the accused truly believed that he had consensual sex with the victim, why did the accused agree to compensate her for the sum of US$50,000 on the same day of the rape,” he had questioned.

“Further, as the prosecution argues, if the entire matter was truly a misunderstanding, and if the accused truly had consensual sex with the victim, there was no reason why the accused would have to seek the victim’s forgiveness.”

Jail instead of caning

Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Susanna Yim called for eight months’ jail in place of caning.

She said that besides the “repugnance” of the offences Yap had committed, there was also the need for “deterrence and retribution”.

Yap has had several brushes with the law dating back to 1992 for property-related offences and for stealing women’s underwear.

DPP Yim also noted that Yap’s crimes had caused great harm on the victim and he had tried to conceal his acts by offering money in exchange for her silence.

“This (eight month’s jail) is not an insignificant period and would appropriately serve to compensate for the retributive and deterrent effect of caning lost by reason of the offender’s exemption,” DPP Yim added.

For rape, Yap could have been jailed up to 20 years, fined and caned.

For the housebreaking charge, he could have been jailed up to five years. Caning is also a penalty if it is not the first offence of housebreaking and theft by night. — TODAY