SINGAPORE, April 24 — On the pretext of correcting his five-year-old student’s posture, a 19-year-old part-time piano teacher slipped his hands inside her panties and placed a hand on her private parts.

He then told her to squeeze her thighs.

The student did not object as he was her teacher, but told him to stop when she felt pain.

The teacher apologised but did not remove his hand, and the girl went home with her grandfather when her lesson at the piano studio ended.

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The man, now 21, pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a minor.

Both he and the girl cannot be named to protect her identity.

The man was employed part-time at the piano studio, which was not named in court documents, after completing his piano diploma and GCE Normal (Academic) Level exams in 2015.

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In August 2016, he began to teach the girl for about half an hour on Mondays. During a one-on-one lesson held behind closed doors three months later, he committed the offence by first asking the girl to sit properly in front of the piano.

The court heard that the girl did not tell her grandfather about the incident after the lesson, as she did not think that anything wrong had happened and also because her grandfather was a “boy”.

Once home, she took an unusually long time in the toilet.

When her mother went to check on her, the girl said she felt pain when she wanted to urinate. She then told her mother what had transpired.

The mother informed the girl’s father, who made a police report.

After the incident, the girl stopped playing the piano on her own and had several episodes of bedwetting.

The man will be sentenced at a later date.

For using criminal force on any person under 14 with the intention to outrage their modesty, he could be jailed for up to five years, and be fined and caned. — TODAY