A 66-year-old man has been sentenced to 19.5 months’ jail today (3 Jan) for molesting a 7-year-old girl for three months in 2014. The Briton was the girl’s reading specialist teacher.
The British citizen, Ian Lewis, was employed at an enrichment centre in Orchard Road in 2012. The girl attended Ian’s classes on Sundays, when Ian would sit beside her and slip his hand under her clothes under the table.
Ian’s heinous crime only came to light when the girl confided in her mother after watching an episode of Crime Watch where a tutor was shown behaving inappropriately with a student. The girl said that she did not inform anyone earlier as she was afraid of being scolded by Ian.
When the parents lodged a complaint with the police, they realised that Lewis had been suspended from the enrichment centre for molesting another 8-year-old in a similar way in March last year. This offence was also taken into consideration in sentencing Ian. The victims were not named to protect their identities.
Ian was spared the rod because offenders over the age of 50 cannot be caned in Singapore. Ian could ould have been jailed up to five years and fined for outraging the modesty of someone below 14 years old.