Teacher who molested pupil on three occasions gets jail term reduced by 3 months on appeal

A primary school teacher who was initially sentenced to 2½ years' jail for molesting his pupil on three occasions has had his jail term reduced by three months on appeal.

- Selina Lum

The incidents took place from 2016, when the girl was in Primary 5, until she was in Secondary 1 in another school in 2018.

On Aug 18, a High Court judge dismissed the man's appeal against his conviction, but allowed his appeal against the sentence for one of the incidents.

Justice Hoo Sheau Peng also dismissed the prosecution's appeal for three strokes of the cane to be imposed.

The 38-year-old man, who was the victim's form teacher when she was in Primary 4 and Primary 5, cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the victim's identity.

She confided in him about her family problems, and he maintained his close relationship with her even when he was no longer her teacher.

Over the years, he used terms of endearment such as "baby" on her. He also bought gifts for her and initiated at least five outings where he went out alone with her.

On June 8, 2020, when she was in Secondary 3, she disclosed the sexual abuse to her form teacher, which led to a police report being made the next day.

The man has been suspended from duty since June 2020, and is no longer teaching in any school.