Jailed for group sex

Singapore- A TEENAGE girl had sex simultaneously with a man more than 20 years her senior as well as with her uncle. On Wednesday, former cabby Zulaimi Karim, 38, a friend of the uncle, was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to two counts of having group sex with the then 14-year-old in 2006. A third similar charge of having threesome sex at her uncle's flat was also taken into consideration.

Zulaimi's 36-year-old accomplice is now serving 14 years behind bars on seven offences of unnatural sex, underage sex with a minor and attempted sex. Twelve other charges were considered. He is appealing against the sentence.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz told the court that investigations showed the girl, now 17, had engaged in sex with Zulaimi and her uncle simultaneously.

On April 26, 2006, the accomplice, who was then in a relationship with the victim, took her to a hotel in Geylang and met Zulaimi. There, the accomplice suggested that the victim have sex with Zulaimi first.

Initially the young girl refused but she relented when her uncle showed his displeasure. The DPP said the trio watched a pornographic movie before the two men took turns having sex with the teen. Afterwards, Zulaimi gave her $30 to top up her phone card. She took the money.

On June 17, the accomplice took the girl to another hotel in Geylang and engaged in threesome sex with Zulaimi. Again, Zulaimi gave her $30.

Only in 2007 were their sexual activities found out. The victim's brother discovered she was having sex regularly and told their parents. When confronted, she told her father she had been in a relationship with her uncle and had been having sex with other men. On May 27 that year, the father took her to make a police report.

Defence lawyer Ravinderpal Singh said in mitigation that had Zulaimi, a father of four, known about the relationship between the accomplice and the girl, he would not have engaged in the group sex.

Citing numerous aggravating factors in the case, DPP Sharmila said the two adults manipulated and sexually exploited the young girl with no regard for her innocence, vulnerability and immaturity. She said Zulaimi, who is more than twice the victim's age, had played an instrumental role in morally corrupting her. On each occasion, he even gave her money after sex, effectively encouraging the victim to prostitute herself in exchange for money. She said on all three occasions, the two men pre-planned their sexual trysts.

Zulaimi's guilty plea, she added, came only after he knew the game was up. 'The accused has demonstrated that he is an opportunist who was waiting to see if his accomplice would snitch on him,' she said. She urged the court to impose a sentence higher than the benchmark of 12 months to reflect its intolerance and abhorrence of his reprehensible conduct.