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Award winning teacher sexually abused students

Amanda Phua | The New Paper | Fri Mar 30 2012

Pervert. Monster.

 

The adjectives can flow but nothing quite describes what a 38-year-old primary school teacher did to three of his male pupils.

 

The Chinese language teacher had robbed them of their innocence.

The Straits Times reported that the teacher had won several school awards and had received letters of prais from parents.

 

He also sat on the school's disciplinary committee to handle its most difficult students and had been voted 'most caring teacher' by students.

 

However, on March 12, he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually penetrating a minor and two counts of outraging the modesty of two other victims. He carried out the acts in 2009.

 

Two of his victims were only eight when he acted out his desires. Another was 11.

 

He was jailed 10 years yesterday, but the boys' suffering could last much longer.

 

Perhaps the most apt description of the teacher is that he's unrepentent.

 

In his mitigation, the teacher simply offered: "I hope that the court will take into consideration that I have no previous criminal record and to be lenient in sentencing."

 

But what of the boys?

 

It has been devastating, a victim impact statement revealed.

 

Two years after he was abused by his teacher, one of his victims was caught inappropriately touching a fellow student last year.

 

Oral sex

 

The victim was only eight when the teacher performed oral sex on him twice.

 

When asked why he touched his classmate, the boy broke down. He was later referred to a counsellor.

 

The boy's father had revealed the incident in a victim impact statement. The father said he too was suffering.

 

He saw a psychiatrist to deal with work and family stress, and said his financial situation was also affected because of the costs of the counsellor and psychiatrist both he and his son had been seeing.

 

Having to keep his son's suffering a secret from his own parents "took a tremendous toll on him", deputy public prosecutor S. Sellakumaran told the court.

 

And though they may have been young when they were abused, the vile acts will haunt them, psychiatrists told The New Paper.

 

Dr Brian Yeo, a consultant psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, said victims can end up with more sexualised behaviour like touching themselves at a younger age.

 

He added: "It's not just his sexual maturity that will be affected, but also his emotional state.

 

In this case, the teacher had a duty of care, so the boy may also find it difficult to trust people, or to talk to people, because the person he trusted abused his position of authority."

 

And the boys can also end up feeling guilty.

 

"The victims may blame themselves for getting the teacher into trouble. Hence, reaction from their parents is important.

 

"If the parents or adults around them scream, shout and blame them, they will feel guilty even when they are the victims," said Dr Yeo.

 

Psychiatrist Adrian Wang said for some young victims, the impact is not immediate.

 

He said: "It doesn't affect them less significantly because they grow up with the memory. And as they mature, they will think more and more about what happened to them as a child and they might feel violated.

 

"There is a potential for it to continue to traumatise them as years go by."

 

Dr Wang echoed Dr Yeo's concern that the abuser was someone who was supposed to protect the victims.

 

Confusing

 

He said: "When the protector becomes a tormentor and deceives you into doing something like this, it is very confusing for the child. They are unsure of their role in it, hence it causes guilt.

 

"For young kids from the age of eight to 10, it causes a mixture of fear as well as disgust because they expect adults to protect him."

 

Dr Wang said parents often blame themselves when a child is abused.

 

He added: "Putting the accused in jail gives the family a sense that justice was done, that the accused cannot harm them anymore and that things were set right."

 

He molested kids on school premises

 

The teacher was jailed 10 years and ordered to be given six strokes of the cane.

 

Seven other similar offences were taken into consideration during sentencing.

 

The teacher enticed two of the victims, aged eight and 11, with a portable game device, then sexually abused them.

 

The acts took place from early 2009 to July the same year.

 

Of the four cases the accused was charged with, three took place in the primary school's computer lab and one took place in the male staff toilet. All were during curriculum time.

 

His disturbing acts came to light only when the school's principal received two complaints from a parent and a pupil about the teacher's inappropriate touching on July 17, 2009.

 

It is not clear if the complainants are involved in the case.

 

Deterrent

 

Asking for a stiff deterrent to be meted out, deputy public prosecutor S. Sellakumaran compared the case to a previous one.

 

In the previous case, the parents of the victim allowed their child to associate with the culprit.

 

However, said DPP Sellakumaran: "The parents of the victims in the present cases had no similar choice.

 

"They could not decide on which teachers would be teaching their children.

 

"Indeed, they had no reason to so decide as they were entitled to expect that all teachers in the school would uphold the unreserved trust placed in them and adhere to the highest professional and moral standards."

 

He added that the victims in this case had no choice but to return to school.