A 37-year old taxi driver, Ang Wei Leong, was sentenced to 9 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to two charges of outraging the modesty of female passengers.
Four other charges were taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing.
For the first offence, Ang had befriended the victim (whom had just boarded his taxi) on 9 June 2014 at 5:30 am and invited her for a drink before he sent her home.
Although the victim turned down Ang’s offer, he brought out two bottles of beer from his boot when he reached the victim’s destination.
As the victim was afraid of what Ang may have done, she alighted and sat on the curb while Ang drank the beer.
Suddenly, Ang hugged her and tried to kiss her but the victim was able to block Ang.
While Ang was driving the victim home, she sent a text a message to her godsister for help.
For the second offence, Ang was driving a female passenger home from Clarke Quay when he stopped the taxi after realizing that she had fallen asleep and he then touched her left breast.
When the woman later woke up to throw up, Ang molested her again when he squeezed her breasts while he passed her a plastic bag for her to vomit into.
While the Prosecution argued for between six and nine months’ imprisonment to be imposed, Ang’s criminal defence lawyer urged the Court to consider Ang’s personal circumstances in mitigation – Ang and his wife were both unemployed, his son was in Primary 6 and he had to provide financial support for his elderly parents whom suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure.
The Court stated that the severe sentence was necessary to send restore public confidence in the safety of public transport.
More information on the case may be found here.