{"id":4669,"date":"2025-08-12T02:32:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T02:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/fourth-conviction-for-incorrigible-sexual-predator-who-preyed-on-children\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T02:32:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T02:32:27","slug":"fourth-conviction-for-incorrigible-sexual-predator-who-preyed-on-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/fourth-conviction-for-incorrigible-sexual-predator-who-preyed-on-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Fourth conviction for &#8216;incorrigible&#8217; sexual predator who preyed on children"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div readability=\"130\">\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">A serial sexual predator who spent one-third of his adult life in prison for preying on children since 1999 has been convicted for the fourth time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">On Aug 11, Terence Thaver, 60, who was last released from prison in March 2021, pleaded guilty to three charges involving two victims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">He admitted to molesting an eight-year-old boy who lived in the same neighbourhood that he did in September 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">The other victim is a 26-year-old man who was sexually assaulted in 2007 when he was nine years old. He reported the incidents to the police in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Thaver pleaded guilty to one charge of outrage of modesty over the 2023 offences and two charges of unnatural sex over the 2007 offences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Three other charges will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced at a later date.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Deputy Public Prosecutor Andre Chong argued that Thaver&rsquo;s high risk of reoffending and his similar antecedents warranted a sentence of at least 18 years&rsquo; preventive detention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">DPP Chong said if Thaver is found unsuitable for preventive detention, he should be sentenced to a jail term of 21 to 25 years, plus three months in lieu of caning, given that he cannot be caned as he is older than 50.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">&ldquo;The accused is an incorrigible sexual predator who has exploited eight children on 60 occasions from 1999 to 2023,&rdquo; said the prosecutor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Thaver&rsquo;s lawyer, Mr Edwin Ho from the Public Defender&rsquo;s Office, sought eight years&rsquo; jail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">He noted that Thaver had voluntarily sought treatment at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for paedophilia four days after his release from prison in 2021, which showed a desire to rehabilitate himself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Mr Ho said Thaver must be punished for the wrong he did, but added: &ldquo;The path of rehabilitation is not smooth sailing for every offender.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/migrant-acquitted-in-first-trial-over-us-border-military-zones\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div><p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Justice Valerie Thean called for a report to assess Thaver&rsquo;s suitability for preventive detention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Under preventive detention, recalcitrant offenders are incarcerated for up to 20 years for the protection of the public and are not automatically entitled to the usual one-third remission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Instead, such inmates can be eligible for release on licence after serving two-thirds or five-sixths of their sentences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Thaver was a primary school teacher when he molested four 10-year-old girls in school between 1999 and 2000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">He was sentenced in 2001 to eight years in jail and 24 strokes of the cane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">In 2008, he hugged and kissed an eight-year-old boy at a neighbourhood outreach centre where he worked. He was sentenced to one year in jail in 2010.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Between 2007 and 2008, he performed oral sex on a boy, then between 10 and 11 years old, after offering to help the victim with his homework.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">These offences came to light only in 2012, and Thaver was sentenced to 13 years&rsquo; jail and 12 strokes of the cane in 2014.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">On Aug 11, DPP Chong told the court that from July 2007 to 2008, Thaver worked as the centre manager at PeaceConnect Neighbourhood Link, a neighbourhood community centre for children and the elderly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">The chairman of the organisation knew of Thaver&rsquo;s past convictions but gave him a chance, and told him that he had to be supervised whenever he interacted with children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">The 26-year-old victim, who was then a Primary 3 pupil, got to know Thaver as he frequented the centre to use its computers and play board games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">On four occasions between July and December 2007, Thaver carried out various sexual acts against the victim, either in his office or in the storeroom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">The victim reported this to the police in November 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">On Aug 17, 2022, the police gave Thaver a three-year conditional warning. Thaver breached the conditions of the warning when he molested the other victim in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">The court was told that Thaver befriended the eight-year-old over a game of chess, and they frequently met at the common corridor outside the boy&rsquo;s flat to play chess.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">On Sept 27, 2023, Thaver hugged the boy from behind and slipped his hand briefly into the victim&rsquo;s shorts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">The next day, the boy told his mother about what Thaver had done, and she lodged a police report. Thaver was arrested on Sept 29 and has been remanded since then.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">The court was told he was diagnosed with paedophilia in May 2013.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-secondary text-18 font-normal leading-1.5 text-grayscale-800\">Between March 2021 and September 2023, he attended follow-up outpatient sessions at the IMH. In August 2021, he was prescribed antidepressants to curb his libido.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div readability=\"32\">\n<p>Selina Lum for The Straits Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub><\/sub><\/p>\n<div>Fourth conviction for &lsquo;incorrigible&rsquo; sexual predator who preyed on children<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A serial sexual predator who spent one-third of his adult life in prison for preying on children since 1999 has been convicted for the fourth time. On Aug 11, Terence Thaver, 60, who was last released from prison in March 2021, pleaded guilty to three charges involving two victims. He admitted to molesting an eight-year-old&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/fourth-conviction-for-incorrigible-sexual-predator-who-preyed-on-children\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Fourth conviction for &#8216;incorrigible&#8217; sexual predator who preyed on children&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}