Five men charged with molest

Singapore – Five men, aged from 26 to 50, were charged in a district court on Thursday (May 27) with molesting women. One of them was accused of molesting an underaged girl.

Toh Lam Seng, 50, Nguyen Chi Cong, 3 Koyya Syama Sundara Rao, 37, and Kasinathan Gumaresan, 34, face one charge of outrage of modesty each, while Helmi Norman, 26, faces two charges of the same offence.

Helmi, a Singaporean, got the additional charge as he was accused of insulting a 26-year-old woman by judging her breasts to be bigger than another woman’s on July 22, 2019, at the fitness corner of Block 217 Yishun Street 22.

He was also accused of squeezing her breasts twice on the same day, at 11.20 pm and 11.25 pm.

Gumaresan, an Indian national, was accused of touching a 48-year-old woman’s buttocks at Bruno’s Pizzeria located at 544 Serangoon Road on October 18 last year at about 9 pm.

He told the court that he was intoxicated at the time and did not recall committing the crime, reported The New Paper.

Vietnamese national Nguyen Chi Cong was seen to touch the buttocks of a 33-year-old woman on April 8 this year at 7.50 pm, at a Sheng Siong Supermarket outlet located at Block 675 Yishun Avenue 4.

Rao, an Indian national, was also accused of touching the left buttock of a 31-year-old woman in a shop in November last year.

Toh, a Singaporean, is said to have touched a 13-year-old girl on her shoulder, upper arm, left breast, hip area and inner thigh area at the Pets Keepers shop located at Block 131 Marsiling Rise on June 22 last year.

Anyone guilty of outraging the modesty of a child under the age of 14 may be jailed for five years,  fined and caned.

Anyone guilty of outraging the modesty of a woman can be jailed for up to two years, fined and caned.

For insulting the modesty of a woman, one can be jailed for up to a year, fined or both.

Phuong Le Ha is an intern at The Independent SG/TISG