The 42-year-old victim who is a completely paralysed female patient at an undisclosed hospital was molested by a 56-year-old cleaner.
As per the reports from ST, the 56-year-old Singaporean man pleaded guilty on Wednesday (March 23) to a molestation charge. Details about the hospital and the patient cannot be disclosed due to a gag order.
WHAT HAPPENED :
On April 27 2021, the cleaner was mopping the hospital floor and he spotted the paralysed woman lying on a bed with the top two buttons of her pyjamas open. The cleaner then felt aroused and molested her.
CAUGHT RED HANDED :
While he was molesting the victim the nurse was at a nearby bed attending another nearby patient behind cubicle curtains. After she was done, she opened the curtains and saw the man touching the woman.
When the nurse saw him touching the woman she was shocked and shouted ‘what are you doing’. The cleaner seemed surprised and removed his right hand without saying anything. He left the ward to continue his work, DPP said in court.
“The complainant approached the victim and asked her if she was okay… When the complainant asked if the accused had touched her breast, the victim blinked three times, which the complainant understood to mean ‘yes’ as it was their method of communication”, ST reported.
After buttoning up the woman’s pyjamas, the nurse told her supervisor about the incident and the police were alerted at around 1.20pm the next day.
“Heard voices” telling him to touch her : Offender
The 56-year-old cleaner told police that he had molested the woman because he had not taken his medication and “heard voices” telling him to touch her. Later that year, a psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) found that even though the man has schizophrenia, he had not relapsed at the time of the offence, ST reported.
On Wednesday, DPP Ng urged District Judge to sentence the man to between 24 and 28 months’ jail, stressing that he had targeted a “particularly vulnerable” victim. For molestation, an offender can be jailed for up to two years and fined or caned.
Defence lawyer said in his mitigation plea that his client has a mental condition and might not have committed the offence “if he had taken his medication“.
The judge said that according to IMH, there was no causal link between the man’s condition and the offence.
The man is expected to be sentenced in April.
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