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SINGAPORE: A man with mild intellectual disability was sentenced to 15 months’ jail and two strokes of the cane for molesting children in public, including a victim as young as nine years old.

District Judge Kelly Ho, who handed Ong Kian Peng his sentence on Wedesday (Aug 14), said Ong knew what he did was wrong, and quoted an Institute of Mental Health (IMH) report which said his condition did not impair his judgment or self-control.

Judge Ho said: “(Ong) himself admitted he may have targeted children. In his words, (the children) won’t make police reports, while adults can take him to the police station.”

Ong, 32, who worked as a packer at the time of the offences, pleaded guilty to two counts of outrage of modesty and one count of using criminal force.

The court heard that Ong was walking around West Mall in Bukit Batok on Feb 2, 2024, while waiting for an appointment with his social worker, when he saw a 15-year-old girl who was waiting for her mother. He asked her if she knew of any nail shop in the mall, and she said no.

Ong then grabbed her hand and placed it on his palm. He stroked her fingers and took a photo of her fingernails with his mobile phone.

The girl moved away from him, but Ong followed her and asked her to place her hand on his lap, but she refused.

Her mother eventually found Ong in the mall and called the police.

The police seized his mobile phone and found incriminating evidence of him molesting other children.

A video on his phone captured one such act on Dec 12, 2023, near Block 283, Bukit Batok East Avenue 3.

Investigations showed that Ong saw a nine-year-old girl walking towards a nail salon, where her mother was working. He grabbed her arm and asked where she did her nails.

Then, he took her hand to touch his private parts and recorded a video of the act.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Lu Huiyi said the girl was scared and anxious, pulled her hand away and went to her mother’s salon.

While under investigation for the West Mall incident, Ong re-offended on May 13, 2024, at a playground near Block 288C, Bukit Batok Street 25.

This time, the victim was an 11-year-old boy who was waiting for a Grab ride. Ong asked the boy where he did his nails and where he lived.

When the boy stood up to walk away, Ong placed the boy’s hand on his right knee, before taking a photo of the boy’s hand with another mobile phone.

The boy walked away towards the lift lobby, but Ong followed him and grabbed his hand to touch Ong’s private parts. The boy pushed Ong away and boarded his Grab ride. His mother made a police report the next day.

Ong was represented by Mohamed Sarhan from the Public Defender’s Office (PDO). The PDO provides access to government-funded defence lawyers for low-income Singaporeans and permanent residents.

Sarhan argued for Ong not to be caned, saying that Ong’s intellectual disability had diminished his culpability, and caning was not necessary to deter him from re-offending.

But DPP Lu quoted IMH’s report on the accused, which stated his condition had no direct link to the offences.

Judge Ho said Ong had made a conscious choice to commit the offences, and added that his rehabilitation did not take precedence in this case. – The Straits Times/ANN