SINGAPORE – A youth who raped his former girlfriend in his flat when he was 17, and then a distant relative less than a year later, was on Thursday (Oct 3) sentenced to a jail term of six years, nine months and two weeks.

The full-time national serviceman, who turns 21 on Sunday (Oct 6), was also ordered to be given six strokes of the cane.

His lawyer, Mr Wee Pan Lee, who had argued for him to be sentenced to reformative training, said his client would be appealing against the sentence. Bail was doubled to $30,000 pending appeal.

District Judge Eddy Tham said reformative training would be “glaringly inadequate”.

He agreed with the argument of Deputy Public Prosecutor Mansoor Amir that the need for deterrence in this case outweighed that of rehabilitation of a young offender.

The judge noted that two victims had been greatly harmed and that the youth showed no remorse after the first rape but went on to perpetuate the same crime against another victim who was even younger.

The youth, who cannot be named to protect his victims’ identities, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of rape and one count of affray for fighting in a public place.

He and the first victim were in a relationship when they were in Secondary 3 and Secondary 4.

The couple broke up in February 2015 but had consensual sex twice after the split.

On the evening of Nov 15, 2015, they met at a coffee shop and he later offered to take her home on his electric bicycle, which was at his home in Tampines.

They went to his bedroom, where he forced himself on her, despite her pleas for him to stop.

His family were having dinner in the living room, and his father came to the door to ask what had happened when a scuffle broke out between the pair, following the assault.

Shortly afterwards, some friends of the youth’s came to the flat. He told them that he had raped the victim but no one said anything.

The victim finally left the flat to meet her mother and lodge a police report.

On Oct 13, 2016, the youth raped his second victim, who was then 16 years old, at an unoccupied flat in Buangkok owned by his family.

She had agreed to meet him after he offered to help her dye her hair.

At the flat, he forced himself on her as she tried to push him away and repeatedly reminded him that they were cousins.

After the rape, he told her not to go to the police as he was under investigation for the earlier rape. He also made her delete the text messages they exchanged.

He called his mother to come over and the woman spoke to the victim before taking her home in a taxi.

The teenager made a police report about a month later.

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