Singaporean permanent resident Huang Youcai, 79, has been sentenced to two months’ jail after pleading guilty to attempting to procure an obscene act from a child below the age of 16. The incident occurred at Senja-Cashew Community Club along Bukit Panjang Road on Feb 1 last year.
The victim, a 12-year-old girl who cannot be named to protect her identity, asked Huang for directions to the toilet. Huang then led her to a handicapped washroom and proceeded to trap her inside. He asked her to engage in a sex act with him while holding her left forearm, according to the report.
Despite the victim’s attempts to leave by opening the toilet door, Huang prevented her from doing so by standing at the doorway. The girl made her escape after around two minutes when Huang eventually opened the door.
“The victim wanted to enter the female toilet, but the accused told her to go to the handicapped toilet instead. She obeyed the accused,” DPP Yap said in court.
“The victim tried to tell the accused that she had to return to her tuition class. When she reached out to open the toilet door, the accused held onto her left han.”
“The victim knew that the accused was asking her questions, but did not understand what he was saying. The victim felt uncomfortable with the accused’s actions”, DPP Yap added.
The victim’s mother made a police report two days later. Huang, who had worked as a cleaner at the community club since 2022, subsequently quit his job.
In court, Huang’s lawyer Ms Caryn Lee stated that he had moved to Singapore from China in 1998 to seek a better life and had worked hard to provide for his family.
Ms Caryn Lee, informed the court that Huang had relocated to Singapore from China in 1998 in pursuit of a better life, having grown up in poverty. She informed the court that Huang had worked diligently to provide for his three children and had not planned to commit the offense, but rather made the decision spontaneously.
Furthermore, Ms Lee mentioned that Huang had resigned from his cleaning job at the community club. She also said that Huang struggles with anxiety and depression, requesting the court to take his mental health into consideration during sentencing.
In response, DPP Yap stated that although Huang had been diagnosed with mixed anxiety-depressive disorder by the Institute of Mental Health. According to the report DPP said that a disorder was present but “no contributory link to the offending (and) no impediment on self-control and judgement”.
District Judge Carol Ling recognized that Huang’s mental health did not play a role in his behavior, describing his offense as “opportunistic.” She observed that Huang had forcibly entered the bathroom and confined the victim for a brief period.
For the charge of attempting to procure an obscene act with a child, Huang could have faced a fine of up to S$10,000, imprisonment of up to seven years, or both.
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