Father of three who raped a woman he met at a New Year’s Eve party was sentenced to nine years’ jail and six strokes of the cane yesterday.
Removal man Muhammad Farhan Mohamed Buan, 30, went to the party at a chalet at the D’Kranji Farm Resort with his wife and three children.
But as the party wound down in the early hours of Jan 1 last year, he left his family sleeping inside the chalet and went in pursuit of the victim, who had gone to a pavilion outside to rest.
Farhan, then 28, struck up a conversation with the single mother, then 30. He asked her for sex after she took a few puffs of his cigarette. But she told him to go back to his wife and children.
He then forcibly kissed her and pulled down his trousers to expose himself to her. Feeling insulted, she scolded him and said she was leaving.
Farhan offered her $10 for the taxi fare. He also offered to walk her out, saying it was not safe for her to walk alone along the road outside the resort.
At about 6am, at the junction of Neo Tiew Road and Neo Tiew Lane 2, he handed her $10.
He said he heard voices coming from the bushes and suggested they take a look.
When she refused, he grabbed her and pulled her towards the dense foliage by the side of the road. He carried the woman up, jumped across a large drain and threw her on the grass.
He raped her as she was trying to pick herself off the ground. After the rape, he gave her another $15 and told her not to tell anyone. He walked back to the resort.
She walked back to the road, where she waved down a taxi driver who had just dropped off a passenger. The cabby called the police immediately after she said she had been raped.
Yesterday, Farhan pleaded guilty in the High Court to one charge of rape and one of insulting the woman’s modesty by exposing himself. A third charge of sexual penetration was considered.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kavita Uthrapathy sought 10 to 12 years’ jail and six to 12 strokes of the cane, arguing that Farhan’s actions were “deliberated”. But his lawyer, Sadhana Rai, sought seven years’ jail and no more than six strokes. She argued that his offences were not premeditated.
selinal@sph.com.sg
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