A maritime boarding officer has been jailed for a year and given three cane strokes for abusing a home care nurse, who was taking care of his mother. The woman, a Filipina, reportedly started receiving lewd SMSs from him just a day after she started working at the family’s flat at Bukit Purmei in January 2014.
The offender, Balakrishnan Kuppusamy (43), got bolder four days later and kissed the back of her neck while they were in the lift. Balakrishnan who was engaged to be married, didn’t stop at that but on the next morning, he touched her breast while she was helping his mother to her room. Later on the same day, he slapped her buttocks.
The woman said that she was reluctant to report the inappropriate behaviour as she was worried about losing her job. But after receiving a particular SMS which made her feel very “degraded” she informed her supervisor and made a police report.
Balakrishnan was sentenced by a district court to two months’ jail for kissing her neck and a $5,000 fine for tapping her buttock in November 2015. But both Balakrishnan and the prosecution appealed the sentence.
Balakrishnan claimed that he did not kiss the back of the woman’s neck while they were in the lift, but that he only touched the woman’s neck with his fingers while making kissing sounds. And that he did not touch her breast, but only “poked” her chest because he was irritated with her for speaking in Tagalog. Balakrishnan further said that he touched the back of the Filipina’s waist to get her attention as she was blocking his entrance to the toilet.
The judge however refused to believe his claims saying Balakrishnan’s “flirtatious and sometimes crude” messages to the woman showed his lewd intentions towards her. The judge dismissed Balakrishnan’s appeal in sentencing him.