A secondary school principal was charged in court on Wednesday (June 26) with 11 counts of molestation. He was accused of molesting seven teenage pupils between the ages of 13 and 15, at the school he headed on different occasions in 2017.
The 46-year-old principal and the victims cannot be named due to a court-mandated gag order to protect the identities of the victims.
Court documents show that three of the victims were 13, another three were 14 and the remaining victim was 15 when the abuse occurred. It remains unclear whether the students were enrolled in the school at the time the abuse took place or how the incidents came to light.
The male principal has been accused of molesting two of the boys thrice. He has also been accused of outraging the modesty of a 14-year-old boy by sliding his hands into the boy’s shorts and touching his private parts in one incident in September 2017 before committing similar acts on the same boy two more times in October 2017.
He is also accused of molesting a 15-year-old boy three times that same month. The school principal allegedly used his right hand to touch the boy’s chest over his shirt pocket in one incident before allegedly poking the boy’s groin with his index finger in a second incident. He is accused of committing a similar act on the same boy a week later.
The accused, who is no longer employed at the school or the Ministry of Education (MOE), allegedly molested the remaining five victims once each by touching their genitals while they were in the school premises. These incidents occurred between August and October 2017.
MOE said that it “takes a serious view of staff misconduct and will not hesitate to take disciplinary action against those who fail to adhere to our standards of conduct and discipline, including dismissal from service.”
The accused, who was offered bail of S$15,000, is set to return to court on 24 July. -/TISG