First marital rape trial in Singapore: Foreign man accused of raping wife under threat of metal rod

SINGAPORE, Jan 22 — A 42-year-old man is being tried in the High Court here for allegedly raping his wife and threatening to injure her with a metal rod back in 2020.

The case could be the first marital rape trial in Singapore following the repeal of immunity for husbands effective from January 1, 2020, The Straits Times reported today.

According to the news report, both the man and his wife are foreigners who work in Singapore but lived apart at that time, which was also when the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns were in place globally.

Neither the man nor the woman or the places where they are linked to, can be named due to a court order.

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The woman’s age was also not detailed in the news report.

The rape allegedly happened on November 8, 2020 when the man met his wife at the void deck of her flat to pass her a gift that she rejected, triggering a heated quarrel in which she threw down her nuptial chain.

For some reason that was not made clear and despite misgivings, she later followed him back to his place where the quarrel continued and he slapped her cheek.

He reportedly showed her a pornographic video and demanded sex, purportedly picking up a metal rod and threatening to harm her with it.

The woman claimed she agreed to sex out of fear.

The next morning, the man returned the woman to her flat, where she subsequently called the police to report what happened.

The man was arrested on suspicion of rape on November 10.

The man was charged with nine crimes, but is contesting six: two for aggravated rape, one for attempted aggravated rape, one for voluntarily causing hurt, one for aggravated outrage of modesty and one for criminal intimidation.