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SINGAPORE: In what the prosecution described as one of the most horrendous acts of sexual abuse in a preschool, a cook molested toddlers regularly during naptime while other teachers were present.
Teo Guan Huat, a 61-year-old Malaysian and Singapore permanent resident, pleaded guilty on Monday (Oct 27) to three counts of molestation of minors. Another five charges will be considered in sentencing.
The name of the preschool cannot be published due to a gag order protecting the identities of the victims, who were between one and two years old at the time of the offences, which took place over seven months in 2023.
The court heard that Teo worked for the school for about a year before he resigned in late 2023 after being discovered.
Apart from his duties as a cook, he also escorted the children to another teacher for showers and helped take care of them at naptime. He would help lay out mattresses in the nap room and pat the children to sleep.
On Nov 16, 2023, an employee not named in court papers reviewed closed-circuit television footage for an unrelated matter and saw Teo inserting his hand under the diaper of a two-year-old girl.
Members of the school's management committee confronted him subsequently and asked him to leave. He resigned on Nov 23, 2023.
However, the matter was only reported to the police in early December 2023. In the meantime, the school's CCTV system was reformatted, erasing prior footage. Three women have been charged in relation to this.
The police managed to recover the deleted footage, which captured a few of the incidents.
They arrested Teo on Dec 4, 2023, and he admitted to molesting three girls aged two or younger, whom he knew by name.
He said he had erectile dysfunction and committed the offences as he was single and had never had relations with a female.
He targeted children instead of adults, as children could not speak, and it would be harder to get caught. The victims were closer to him compared with the other children and would hug him when they saw him, the prosecutor said.
Teo would molest the girls only when other teachers were not looking. He did so two to three times a week between May 2023 and November 2023.
On one occasion in November 2023, Teo was assisting with naptime in a classroom when he molested a two-year-old girl at least nine times.
There were around 20 children in the classroom at the time, and several other teachers who were helping to pat the children to sleep.
On the pretext of patting the victim to sleep, Teo inserted his hand under the girl's diaper and molested her nine times over about an hour.
He would stop when he saw another teacher looking in his direction, and he would raise his right leg and position himself so the other teachers could not see him.
After his arrest, he was diagnosed with paedophilic disorder.
The prosecution sought 10 years' jail for Teo, saying the victims were extremely vulnerable and that this was one of the most horrendous acts of sexual abuse committed in a preschool.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Claire Poh said Teo specifically targeted the victims because they would never be able to report him.
She said parents should be able to feel safe when they entrust their toddlers to preschools.
Ms Poh added that there was "some abuse of trust" as Teo was close to the victims.
Defence lawyer Revi Shanker said his client was remorseful and that he was not a preschool teacher but a cook. While what he did was "very, very wrong", the lawyer questioned why the school allowed him to care for the children and said there was a lack of employees there.
He sought six years' jail, with no additional jail in lieu of caning.
Mr Shanker said his client "volunteered" to care for the children, but the school allowed him to.
"I'm not justifying whatever he did," said the lawyer, but stressed that Teo was "first and foremost" a cook.
"We don't know he had these issues," he said, referring to Teo's paedophilic condition. "I believe neither the school knew he had these issues."
The judge said he required some time to consider the sentence and adjourned the case to a later date.
Teo pleaded guilty in the late morning after disputing the duration of the molestation. His lawyer asked the prosecution if they could show him the CCTV footage, and the duration was later amended in the statement of facts.
Teo attended the hearing from his place of remand, frowning at various points as he listened to proceedings.
The parents of one of the victims also attended the hearing, waiting till its conclusion despite multiple postponements on Monday.
When approached by CNA, they declined comment but indicated that they were not even sure which of the three victims described in the court hearing was their daughter.
For each count of molesting a minor, Teo could be jailed for up to five years and fined. He cannot be caned as he is above 50.
