SINGAPORE, June 13 — Mohamad Shahril Abdul Rashid told his victims that he had been sexually abused by his godbrother as a child, before asking them if they wanted a demonstration and sexually assaulting them.
The three boys, aged between 9 and 13, were members of Shahril’s kompang (Malay hand drum) group and called him “ayah” (father in Malay). His sexual abuse eventually caused one of them to leave the group.
Shahril, 31, was sentenced to 22 years’ jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane yesterday.
He pleaded guilty in the High Court to three counts of aggravated sexual assault by penetration, with another eight similar charges — including molestation — taken into consideration for sentencing.
He could have been jailed up to 20 years and given at least 12 strokes of the cane for each charge of aggravated sexual assault by penetration. His sentence was backdated to his date of remand on October 1, 2017.
The victims cannot be named due to court orders to protect their identities.
Boys stayed overnight before shows
The court heard that at the time of the offences, Shahril worked as a security officer and UberEats deliveryman, apart from being a kompang instructor.
He founded the group in 2005 and they held their practice sessions at a community club. Its location was removed from court documents.
Apart from Shahril, the group members were aged between nine and 15. They performed at weddings and he gave them monetary allowances after each performance.
They would usually stay at his flat on the day before a performance. Before sexually assaulting his victims, Shahril ensured that each boy was alone with him.
He warned them against inappropriate touching by anyone and specifically shared his experience of being sexually abused when he was 12 years old to gain sympathy from the boys.
He then demonstrated the acts on them even after they refused him. This happened in his flat or a storeroom at the community club.
He told them that he was doing it to protect them from such harmful behaviour in the future. After each incident, he asked them to keep it a secret.
Two of the victims were brothers, then aged 13 and 12.
The court did not hear what happened to the younger brother but in September 2017, Shahril forced the older brother to perform a sex act on him, he then sexually violated the boy as well.
He gave the boy S$10 (RM30.67) for an earlier kompang performance and told him to keep quiet.
After that, the boy sent him a WhatsApp message saying he did not like what had happened. The boy then quit the group the following month.
Asked parents to let victim live with him
The third victim had been a member of the group since 2015. Shahril first molested him the following year, when he was nine years old.
The boy told Shahril to stop but he continued touching him inappropriately.
Sometime in 2017, Shahril asked the boy’s parents if he could be his custodian and allow the boy to live with him for extended periods of time. The parents agreed as they lived in a one-room rental flat and had several other children.
Because of this, the boy stayed with Shahril for most of 2017.
On one occasion, Shahril forced the boy to perform a sex act on him. The boy did not confide in anyone as he did not know it was wrong and followed the man’s instructions to keep it a secret.
When the boy was sent for a psychiatric assessment later, he said that he felt “sad and angry” following the sexual abuse, even though he told Shahril he did not like it and it was “dirty”.
Shahril’s offences came to light in October that year, when the first victim told his 22-year-old godbrother what had happened. The older man then made a police report.
Prosecutors sought 24 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane, calling it an “appalling case” of sexual abuse.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Chee Ee Ling said the youngest victim still suffers from nightmares of Shahril abusing him, and sees his school counsellor to “get over his trauma in hopes of resuming normality in his life”.
A psychiatrist also found that Shahril has paedophilic inclinations, but could not fully ascertain if he was a paedophile as he had disputed most of the details in a summary of facts prepared by the police.
Shahril’s lawyer, Pramnath Vijayakumar, sought a lower jail term of 20 years’ jail with the same number of cane strokes. He noted that Shahril was a victim of sexual abuse himself, which he added did not justify his crimes but provided context for them. — TODAY
