Three Britons get jail, caning for raping Malaysian woman

Three British nationals who went on trial two weeks ago for taking turns to rape a Malaysian woman in Carlton Hotel were sentenced to between five-and-a-half and six-and-a-half years' jail today, The Straits Times reported.

The report said the three men had pleaded guilty a day earlier to aggravated molestation after taking a week to consider the reduced charges.

Khong Tam Thanh, 22, was given six years' jail and eight strokes of the cane; Vu Thai Son, 24, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years' jail and eight strokes of the cane; and Michael Le, 24, was jailed for five-and-a-half years and given five strokes of the cane.

On Monday, it was reported that Deputy Public Prosecutor G. Kannan sought a six-year jail term for Le and seven years for Thanh and Son.

All three had admitted to outraging the woman's modesty by having sex with her while wrongfully restraining her in the early hours of Sept 10 last year, said the online report.

The report said Thanh and Son also each admitted to a second charge of outrage of modesty by committing another sexual act on the woman, who was then 22 years old.

The maximum punishment for aggravated molestation is 10 years in jail.

It was not mentioned in court why the charges were reduced in what appears to be a plea deal, said the report.

It was reported that the trio, who are of Vietnamese descent, were part of a group of friends who flew to Singapore on Sept 9 to throw a stag party and attend a music festival. They had booked three rooms at the hotel.

On the night they arrived, they went clubbing at Zouk, where one of them, Trinh Viet Anh, 24, struck up a conversation with the woman.

The report said she suggested going to Anh's hotel room, where they had consensual sex, after which she fell asleep.

At about 4 am, Anh let Thanh into the room while he left to join the others in another room. One after another, Thanh, Son and Le had sex with the woman.

While Le was having sex with her, she woke up and demanded to know who he was.

She confronted Anh when he returned, but he claimed to have no knowledge of what had happened.

She then texted a friend who picked her up and took her to his flat to rest. She decided to lodge a police report the same day, said the report.

-- BERNAMA