Amos Atlantis

HE WAS a sexual predator who spun a tall tale to lure a young girl into his clutches.

Khairulhizam Din Ahmad, 38, found a victim in a 15-year-old schoolgirl who needed money to buy food for her younger siblings.

He exploited her desperate need by offering her $400 to do the “couple’s thing” with him.

But after they had sex, Khairulhizam not only did not pay her but he also stole her bag which contained valuables worth $220.

Arrested about a month later, he claimed trial to one count each of theft and sexual penetration of a minor under 16.

He was convicted and sentenced to six years corrective training last September.

His appeal against the conviction was dismissed by High Court judge Lee Seiu Kin earlier this month.

This is not the first time Khairulhizam had preyed on young girls.

His latest offence was committed not long after he was released from jail for molesting a 11-year-old girl.

During his trial, the court heard that Khairulhizam had approached two teenage boys at Block 713, Yishun Avenue 5, on 26 Mar last year.

He pretended to be looking for his best friend’s daughter, Ayu, who had run away from home and offered the boys $50 each if they helped him find her.

He also suggested that they should get a girl to approach Ayu if they find her so that she would not be suspicious.

After making several calls to their female friends, one of the boys, 15, managed to get his girlfriend to agree to meet them.

The girl, a Secondary Two student, her boyfriend and his friend cannot be named to protect her identity.

When she arrived at the block at about 6pm, Khairulhizam asked the boys to sit on another bench so hecould talk to her alone.

He told her that if she “did a good job” in looking for Ayu, he would give her $50 or $100. If she gave “good service”, he would pay her more than $50.

The girl testified in court that Khairulhizam was looking at her “up and down” and smiling when he said that. She also understood that “good service” referred to having sex.

When asked about her sexual experience, she told the court that she sometimes had sex with her former boyfriends.

Khairulhizam later asked the boys to wait at another block while he and the girl took a taxi to Ang Mo Kio Park.

On the way, he described what Ayu looked like and explained how she had caused problems for her parents.

At the park, they sat at a sheltered area while waiting for Ayu to show up. As they chatted, Khairulhizam told the girl that he would give her $400 for doing the “couple’s thing”.

The girl testified that she remained silent. But when Khairulhizam told her to stand up and started undressing her, she did not resist.

She said she agreed because she needed money to buy food for her younger siblings as her father was jobless.

They had sex and after she put on her clothes, she noticed it was 8pm.

Khairulhizam told her not to tell her boyfriend and his friend what had happened as they walked to Block 154, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5. He told her to wait at the void deck while he went to withdraw money to pay her.

When she asked for her bag which he was holding, he assured her that he would be back after getting the money.

When Khairulhizam didn’t return, the frightened girl, who was on the verge of tears, approached a passer-by, Mr Maznan Mosort, for money to use a public phone.

When he asked her why, she told him that she had been robbed and wanted to call her parents.

He then called the police on his handphone, Mr Maznan told the court.

In the girl’s bag was her wallet containing $20, an MP3 player, an ez-link card and handphones belonging to her and a friend.

Khairulhizam was arrested on 23 Apr at about 7.45am at Lorong 17 Geylang.

The girl’s handphone was found in his flat while her friend’s handphone was recovered from Khairulhizam’s relative.

In his defence, Khairulhizam,who did not havea lawyer, denied telling the three teenagers that he was looking for his friend’s daughter. He also denied having sex with the girl and stealing from her.

He told the court that he took eight tablets of amitriptyline – prescribed for his insomnia and drank beer that day before going to Yishun tomeet a friend.

At a void deck there, the two boys approached him and said that “if he wanted a girl, they had a girl”.

Khairulhizam said he “was in his own world” until the girl came.

He testified that he remembered the girl “pulled his hand and he went along with her”. He also recalled getting out of a taxi but did not know where it was.

When he woke up after 8am the next day, he found himself lying near a rubbish chute at Ang Mo Kio.

It was then he realised he had the handphones of the girl and her friend in his pocket.

Senior consultant psychiatrist G Sathyadevan, chief of the forensic psychiatry department at the Institute of Mental Health, testified that amitriptyline has a sedative effect andaids in impulse control.

He said the drug could cause amnesia but this was more likely among the elderly.

Although Khairulhizam had consumed alcohol with the drug, Dr Sathyadevan said this would not prevent him from being aware of what he was doing and from being able to recall what had happened.

Trial judge Jasvender Kaur found the three teenagers to be credible witnesses and disbelieved Khairulhizam’s “ridiculous story”.

She convicted him and sent him to six years of corrective training in prison.

Corrective training aims to lead an offender away from a life of crime by putting him through a strict discipline regime. There is no early release for good behaviour.

For sexual penetration with or without consent with a person under 16 years old, Khairulhizam could have been jailed 10 years and fined.

For theft, he could have been jailed three years and fined.