SINGAPORE – A woman who was sexually exploited by her step-uncle as a teenager broke her silence about it several years later, after she spotted the man in public while she was with her husband and in-laws. On April 18, the 39-year-old man, who is the younger brother of her stepmother, was sentenced to 18 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane by the High Court. He had pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated sexual assault by penetration and one charge of outrage of modesty. Another eight charges for various sexual offences, including sexual penetration of a minor, were taken into consideration. The man cannot be named because of a gag order to protect the identity of the victim, who is now 27 years old. She was 13 years old when he began committing sexual acts on her. In 2010, they moved together with their families to live in a maisonette flat. The victim and her sister shared a room on the second level, while the man’s room was on the first level.  That year, the perpetrator, who was then 26 years old, began entering the victim’s room at night while she and her sister were sleeping. Read more