SINGAPORE: A reading specialist was given one-and-a-half years' jail and three strokes of the cane on Wednesday (Mar 3) for molesting a three-year-old girl in a language class.
British national Richard Christopher Monks, 29, said in his mitigation that he had committed the offence "in a momentary lapse of judgment owing to work-related stress and anxiety".
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe judge noted the vulnerability of the victim and the harm she suffered - with the girl's mother observing that her child began wetting her bed and feared falling asleep on her own after the offence.
Monks pleaded guilty last month to one charge of using criminal force to outrage a minor's modesty at a language training and literacy centre in 2018.
He worked at the centre, which was attended by students aged between two-and-a-half and 12. His victim attended his lessons every Saturday.
During a group lesson on Oct 20, 2018, Monks gathered the students to sit on one side of the table to watch a video.
AdvertisementAdvertisementHe stood behind the children, including the victim, positioning himself opposite a closed-circuit television camera that he knew was in the room.
This way, the students' upper bodies blocked the camera's view of his hands, while the lower halves of the kids' bodies could not be captured.
The victim was the youngest in a class of six, with her classmates aged four or five.
He repeatedly slid his hand under her dress to molest her, and the child expressed her discomfort by fidgeting and turning back to look at him. Despite the victim's reactions, Monks continued to molest the girl.
AdvertisementThe crime went undetected until a week later, when the girl was reluctant to return for her class and told her mother that "Teacher Richard" had touched her.
The defence said that Monks had told his supervisor before the incident that he had trouble sleeping. He was asked to see a doctor and was prescribed medication for anxiety and insomnia on Dec 20, 2018.
For using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a minor, Monks could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or given any combination of these punishments.
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