‘Father Figure’ Sexually Abused 2 Young Boys After Giving Shelter At Home

A man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after he was found guilty of sexually abusing two young boys while they sought shelter at his home.

The man who remains unnamed due to a gag order was sentenced to jail Tuesday in Singapore for sexually abusing two young brothers who were his godsons.

The accused man, who was 31 at the time of the incident in 2019, had pleaded guilty last month to two counts of sexual assault by penetration, with three other charges also taken into consideration, news outlet Channel News Asia reported.

The boys’ father had abandoned the family a decade ago. The accused man had offered shelter to the victims and their mother while they were evicted from their home after a family dispute in August 2019.

Then aged 10 and 12, the victims, along with their mother, were under a safety plan by a social service agency due to the primary caregiver's inadequate parenting skills. She reportedly raised the offer to the agency who approved her to stay in the man’s flat along with his wife. Later, the victims’ grandfather also stayed with them.

The man soon assumed the “father figure” and the boys used to call him “Papa,” The Straits Times reported. He reportedly played video games with them, signed their school consent forms and took care of them in the absence of other adults.

During their stay at his home, he sodomized the older boy when the rest of the family was asleep. He also repeated the act while they were showering together. The older boy soon learned that his brother was also sexually molested but the two boys did not tell anyone fearing they will become homeless if they report the incident.

The boys finally told their mother about the assault after they moved into their own rental accommodation in January before the incident was reported to the police.

“Instead of providing the victim with a home in which he could find comfort and security, the accused cynically abused the relationship of responsibility and trust he had with the victim. He exploited his access to the victim for the reprehensible purpose of satisfying his own sexual urges,” Justice Mavis Chionh said during the sentencing.

He is sentenced to 18 years in jail and 24 strokes of the cane.