A well-known entrepreneur was given a jail sentence of nearly ten years on Aug 5 after he was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault by penetration and two counts of outrage of modesty.
Norvan Tan, 26, the founder of the Beef Bro F&B chain and footwear store BlackOut, was additionally given eight strokes of the cane as part of his sentence.
Tan was found to have sexually assaulted the friend of his sister in the early morning hours of Dec 26, 2016. The woman, who was only 19 at that time, had been highly intoxicated during the assault.
His lawyer, Mr Amarjit Singh, has said that Tan will appeal against the conviction.
Tan is currently out on bail of $95,000.
The woman had been out partying with Tan’s sister the night before the assault. When they arrived at Tan’s flat at around 5:40 am, he was there with two of his friends.
While Tan’s sister was talking to his friends, the victim went to the bathroom to vomit.
The victim said that Tan then entered the bathroom and kissed her, before bringing her to a room and sexually assaulting her.
After this, she went back to the bathroom to vomit again, and Tan went to her and sodomized her.
CNA reported that she was so drunk that she fell twice when Tan tried to help her up from the toilet and that she couldn’t even talk or change her clothes.
The prosecutors argued that Tan, who was then 21, had been “fully cognisant” of how drunk the woman was and had “deliberately exploited” her vulnerability to “satiate his perverse sexual desires,” TODAY reported.
They added that he had not used a condom, which put the victim at risk for sexually transmitted diseases.
The victim filed a police report the following day, Dec 27, 2016.
Tan’s semen was later found on a t-shirt the woman was wearing at the time of the assault. The defence said that this may have come from the toilet when she was vomiting, but High Court judge Ang Cheng Hock rejected this claim.
The judge underlined the victim’s intoxicated state and said that he considered it an aggravating factor that made her vulnerable to the assault.
He added that while her testimony and evidence had been clear, Tan’s had been inconsistent.
Tan’s sister, who had earlier said in text messages to the victim that Tan had admitted to having “fingered” the woman, later recanted this.
The woman’s identity has been blocked by a gag order for her protection.
/TISG