SINGAPORE – A primary school physical education (PE) teacher asked a seven-year-old girl in his class to sit on his lap and play a game on his laptop in class while he molested her.

The girl alerted another teacher via social media about six years later, after she graduated from the school, as she was concerned that the offender was a teacher in her younger sister’s Primary 1 class.

On Jan 22, the PE teacher, now 55, was sentenced to 16 months’ jail after admitting to one count of using criminal force to a person with intent to outrage her modesty.

As he is over 50 and cannot be caned, he was sentenced to an additional 45 days’ jail in lieu of three strokes of the cane.

The teacher, victim and their school cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the girl’s identity.

Court documents state that the teacher joined the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 1993. He began teaching in the school in 2005, and mainly taught PE and Mathematics to pupils in Primary 1 to 6.

Some time in 2015, when the victim was in Primary 1, she attended the PE teacher’s theory class. He had set up a laptop on the desk at the front of the classroom and called up pupils one by one.

He told the pupils to sit on his lap and play a game on the laptop. When the victim did so, he molested her over her skirt.

It was only in 2020, when she attended a sexual education class as a Primary 6 pupil, that she realised that what the PE teacher had done was wrong.

After she graduated, she sent a message via Instagram in March 2021 to another teacher from the school, and told him what had happened.

The girl also expressed concern that her younger sister was in Primary 1 in the same school at the time, and the molester was one of her teachers.

The PE teacher later confessed to molesting several other female pupils like he did in 2015, after the school principal and another teacher confronted him about the allegation.

He gave a written confession to the principal, who advised the girl’s parents to make a police report.

The PE teacher also admitted that he chose to molest Primary 1 and 2 pupils, as he thought that older pupils would know what he did was wrong.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Selene Yap said that the victim felt very disgusted, scared and embarrassed whenever she thought about what her teacher had done.

The prosecutor asked for the teacher to be jailed between 20 and 24 months, aside from caning. She noted aggravating factors in the case, such as the victim’s young age and the teacher’s serious abuse of position.

“He had the knowledge of the sensitivities of these young children, he was put in charge of them, and he abused their trust,” said DPP Yap.

Lawyer Wendell Wong of Drew and Napier, who represented the teacher, said his client felt ashamed about his acts.

“He’s absolutely sorry for what he has done, and he wants to take responsibility,” said Mr Wong.

District Judge Kamala Ponnampalam agreed with the aggravating factors mentioned by the prosecution, and also took the teacher’s early plea of guilt and cooperation with investigations as a mitigating factor.

A spokesman from MOE told The Straits Times that the teacher was suspended from duty in April 2021 and is no longer teaching in any school.

The spokesman said: “MOE takes a serious view of staff misconduct and will not hesitate to take disciplinary action against those who fail to adhere to our standards of conduct and discipline, including dismissal from service.”

For molesting a child below 14 years old, an offender can be jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or receive any combination of such punishments.