SINGAPORE – A woman told the court on Wednesday (October 28) that she felt “like killing him” when she found out that her husband had been abusing her son since he was just 8 years old.
A report on CNA shared that the woman was testifying in a sex abuse trial of her second husband, who was the stepfather of her son.
According to the mom, she believed that her husband began to act strangely because he was interested in the teenage son’s new girlfriend. But her son would reveal to her later on that his stepfather had been sexually abusing him since he was an eight-year-old boy.
During the trial, the 48-year old mom was very emotional as she spoke on the stand, struggling to talk due to her anger.
The court also heard that the sexual offences committed against the woman’s son occurred from the time he was eight until 17. The victim, who cannot be named due to the gag order put in place to protect him, is now 21-years old.
Apparently, the mom had divorced the boy’s biological father and eventually remarried in June 2007. She would often leave her son with her second husband when she had to go to work. Supposedly the boy and the stepfather had a good relationship, and the young boy looked up to him.
According to the prosecution, “Between 2007 and 2012, in the privacy of their flat, the accused exploited the victim’s trust, and groomed him to enjoy their sexual activities, to the point where the victim sometimes initiated the sexual acts.”
The prosecution also said that the boy had only realised that the acts were wrong in 2014 when he was already in Secondary 4. This is when the boy stopped the sexual acts with the accused.
According to the mother, the husband was “very cool” and didn’t get easily angry or upset. But after the teenage boy’s new girlfriend came into the picture in 2015, the stepfather became “controlling” of the victim.
The mother said, “Every time he would message (him) and then asking him where he was and when he would come back.” Moreover, when the son came home late, the accused would get angry and question the victim about his whereabouts or why he wasn’t replying to the stepdad’s messages.
The CNA report also cites that according to the prosecution, the stepfather wanted to recommence their sexual activities, but the teen no longer wanted to.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutors Asoka Markandu, Michelle Lu and Colin Ng, the victim reportedly only agreed to the stepdad’s demands when he threatened to ruin the teenager’s relationship with his new girlfriend.
During the trial, the mom revealed to the court about the day her son had told her about the abuse. According to her, it was January 15, 2016, and she happened to be in a cab heading out when her son sent her messages “pleading” with her to come home. He iterated that it was “about time” that she knew the truth about what had been going on.
Accompanied by his girlfriend, the teenage boy met up with his mom in Geylang and told her that his stepdad had “done something” to him, acts that included molestation and sodomy.
The mom was emotional as she spoke in court, explaining “I was angry.”
“I asked (my son), is this the truth, and he said this is the truth. I asked him, since Primary 3, or 4?, (my husband) did that to him,” she added.
She also shared that she had bumped into her husband on the way home that day, but she didn’t speak to him. By the time they got home, she felt “like killing him” but because she was “extremely angry,” she didn’t confront him.
On her brother’s advice, she took her son to the hospital where a doctor told them to make a police report. The victim was moved to the house of an uncle.
On January 18, 2016, the accused got drunk and upset, and he ended up taking a chopper from the kitchen and saying he wanted to look for the victim and kill him. He also pointed the knife at the woman saying, “you should have supported me,” then he left the house.
It was later on December 3, 2018, when the mother accompanied the husband to court. Then when she returned home that day, it was only then that she decided to take the charges from his drawer to read them for the first time.
She went to the Changi Prison the next day and confronted her husband, asking if what he was being accused of was true or not.
She said, “He only said no and he just put his head down. After that, I visited him daily. On Dec 5, I asked him the same question again, but this time he said he couldn’t remember because he was drunk.”
The accused pressured the woman to have the son drop the case, “He said that if he were to be found guilty, he would spend a long time inside in prison, so every day when I visit him, he will always talk about this. It was like a pressure on me. I felt stressed.”
But her son did not withdraw the case.
The accused is defended by the Law Society Pro Bono Services’ Pramnath Vijayakumar and Sadhana Rai. His defence is one of denial, saying he did not sexually abuse his stepson. He will only ‘plead guilty to stalking his stepson’s girlfriend and threatening his wife with a chopper.
The trial still continues. /TISG