Molester who touched boys on public buses jailed

SINGAPORE — A 28-year-old man repeatedly touched a secondary school student’s buttock on board a public bus in March, a court heard.

After he was arrested, Machiyoshi Lim Dao Jian admitted to touching other boys in their school uniforms or physical education shorts on public buses, although he could not recall how many victims he had touched.

At the State Courts on Monday (1 June), the molester was jailed for 14 weeks after he pleaded guilty to one of two charges of molestation.

The remaining count was considered in sentencing.

Culprit boarded bus with victim

On 16 March, Lim and the victim boarded bus service 976 in Teck Whye at about 5pm. The victim, who was in his school uniform, sat at the left corner seat on the last row of the bus.

The perpetrator sat next to the victim and started to touch his right buttock, the court heard.

Deputy Public Prosector Derek Ee said, “The victim felt a pressure on his right buttock, which lasted for about a minute. He saw that the accused was sitting very close to him and that the accused’s left leg was touching his right leg. The victim said ‘excuse me’ to the accused and moved his right leg away from the accused.”

Lim then shifted a bit to the right. However, just a few minutes later, Lim moved closer to the victim and again touched his buttock.

The victim reacted by leaning forward, said DPP Ee. “The accused then placed his hand on the chair, behind the victim’s buttocks. When the victim sat back, his right buttocks was on the accused’s left hand.”

The boy then said “excuse me” and went up to the bus captain, who locked the bus and called the police.

Lim admitted to his crime. Just a week earlier, on 11 March, he had also rubbed the thigh of a 15-year-old on board bus service 187 in Bukit Batok at about 8am.

The molester also said that he “began having the inclination to touch young boys on public buses since October 2019,” said DPP Ee.

“He stated that this was not the first time he had touched boys inside a bus, and that he usually touched boys who were in their school uniforms shorts or physical education shorts. He did so by sitting beside them in a public bus and using his hand to touch their thighs. He was unable to remember the number of times he had done so,” added the prosecutor.

A government psychiatrist found that Lim suffered from paraphilic disorders, and his offending was likely to be a “maladaptive coping mechanism to deal with emotional stress and social isolation”.

For using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a person, Lim could have been jailed for up to two years along with a fine and caning.

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