She gets 12 months' probation for sex with own father

The first woman to be convicted of incest was placed on 12 months' probation on Monday.

The 24-year-old accused was 20 at the time when she had consensual sex with her father, a 48-year-old plumber, at their home in April 2008.

He is now serving three years behind bars for a similar offence.

The court heard that the woman, then a technical executive, had been accompanying her father to coffeeshops since 2006 to meet his friends for drinks. They became close over time to the point of touching and fondling each other's private parts when they were alone in the flat.


One night in April 2008, after both got home from a drinking session, an argument broke out when she showed little interest in her father who was trying to speak to her while she was checking her email on the laptop. Her mother was not in.

She eventually apologised, gave him a hug and both caressed each other.

They had sex.

The matter came to light a week later when her friend called the police after the accused had sent her a text message.

Her lawyer S. S. Dhillon had said in mitigation last November that she had had a very traumatising childhood.

Since young, he said his client, a diploma graduate, had witnessed her father - a drunkard and a womaniser - bashing her mother and flagrantly having an affair with the maid.

During her probation, the accused has to live with her maternal aunt and attend therapy sessions with a psychiatrist.

The maximum penalty for the offence is five years' jail

- The Straits Times