Gardener jailed 18 years

The Straits Times, Aug 25, 2009

By Selina Lum
		Robiul Bhoreshuddin Mondal (left), 37, a Bangladeshi, had fought the allegations, claiming he had been framed by the 24-year-old Indonesian, who invited him in and had consensual sex with him. --PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE

A GARDENER who broke into the room of a domestic maid - three days after she started work - and raped her was jailed 18 years on Tuesday and ordered to be caned 24 strokes, the maximum number allowed under the law.

Robiul Bhoreshuddin Mondal, 37, a Bangladeshi, had fought the allegations, claiming he had been framed by the 24-year-old Indonesian, who invited him in and had consensual sex with him.

But his defence was rejected by High Court judge Tay Yong Kwang, who found Robiul guilty at the end of nine-day trial.

On the night of June 23 last year - a week after the maid arrived in Singapore, Robiul entered her bedroom, on the ground floor of her employer's house in the Holland Road area.

During the trial, she testified that when she woke up in the middle of the night, a man was lying beside her.

He covered her mouth with his hands and threatened to kill her. Over the next 11/2 hours, he raped her four times.

Robiul was arrested two days later, after a fingerprint lifted off the door handle to the maid's room was traced to him.

In police statements, he confessed to the rape and described how he had climbed over a wall at the back of the house, then climbed into the maid's room through a casement window.

However, in court, Robiul, represented by lawyer G. K. Rada, assigned under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, distanced himself from these statements, which he claimed were not given voluntarily.