26-year-old Yap Jun Cheng was sentenced to 14 years in jail and 22 strokes of the cane yesterday for raping and sexually assaulting a young job-seeking Malaysian just hours after meeting her.
In 2011, a young woman from Sabah (who cannot be named due to a gag order), befriended Yap on Facebook. They communicated intermittently before the woman reached out to Yap in 2013, asking him to help her around in Singapore as she planned to find a job and rent a flat in the city.
Yap agreed to help her and the two met in March 2013, after exchanging numbers. Yap told the woman – then only 20-years-old – that he needed to go to his home in Tampines to change clothes before her flat-viewing appointment at 10.30am. Yap was serving his National Service at the Singapore Civil Defence Force at the time and lived with his parents and grandmother.
At his home, Yap told the unassuming woman to wait while he took a shower. The woman greeted Yap’s grandmother who was home and waited until Yap returned. Under the guise of showing the victim his room, Yap pulled her in and locked the door before telling her to leave her boyfriend, claiming he could support her financially.
When the woman rejected Yap’s advances and lightly pushed him away, he pulled her back forcefully while unbuttoning his shirt. The victim found that she was unable to leave the room as the doorknob was broken. When she tried calling out to Yap’s grandmother, she did not get a reply and Yap covered her mouth and proceeded to rape her.
He also threatened to kill her and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
After the ordeal, Yap’s grandmother finally came to the door but did not see the woman who was too afraid of Yap to call out for help.
When she asked Yap for permission to use the washroom, Yap allowed her but insisted that she go to the washroom naked from the waist down. While she was in the washroom, the woman realised that she was alone in the apartment with Yap.
Yap then insisted that the woman cook for him, still unclad. The woman fearfully cooked some dishes for Yap who later allowed her to wear her panties and shorts after she was nearly scalded by the cooking oil.
Yap raped the woman once again in the living room, shortly after. When the woman went to the washroom after the second rape and tried to deter Yap from raping her again by claiming that she’s on her period, Yap laughed and said it was like he had struck lottery.
Yap and his victim then visited a food court in Bedok to eat before travelling to Boon Lay where she was finally allowed to leave. She left for Malaysia where she met her cousin-in-law who convinced the shaken victim to return to Singapore that same day and lodge a police report.
The woman has been left deeply traumatised by the ordeal and it has been reported that the episode is affecting her relationship with her boyfriend.
Unemployed Yap pled guilty to one count of rape, and one count each of using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman and sexual assault by penetration. There were 11 other charges against him that were considered before sentencing.
The prosecution argued for a 16-year jail sentence, while the defense countered that the attacks were not pre-meditated and that Yap, who had pleaded guilty from the beginning of the trial, was remorseful for his actions.