A word of caution to our readers: sexual assault trigger warning
The woman related how her daughter had been attended to by a masseur, who took advantage of the situation and fondled her chest using his hands and lips. He even inserted his hands into her underwear to touch her private parts but she managed to stop him.
In the police report, the girl detailed how the man had deliberately given her a small-sized towel so that she could not cover up her whole body but only her buttocks. He also sat on top of her in guise of cracking her back.
He covered up for his sexual assault by saying that it was usually included in massage routines. The woman said that they had been to other massages with masseurs before but that this had never happened.
The daughter had not told her mother of the incident at the spa but stayed silent after the massage till they returned to the apartment where they were residing. Sensing something wrong as she was not a quiet person, her parents questioned her and the woman then took her daughter back to the spa but the man denied all wrongdoing.
She then lodged a police report at a Malaysian police station, but the woman said that she had “no confidence” in them as she had waited close to five hours there. The mother felt helpless as she had called the Singaporean embassy but they commented that there was nothing that Singaporean police could do as the incident had occurred in Malaysia.
According to her, the masseur was arrested on the spot but the police merely held him in custody for several hours. To add insult to injury, the policemen had apparently made a joke of the whole situation, laughed, and made the 20-year old girl re-enact the incident, which can traumatising for victims of sexual assault.
The woman said that she did not even receive a copy of the police report, saying that it was their property, but she managed to take a picture of it. She asked Diah Mastura’s help to ask around if anyone has gone through a similar experience before.
She further elaborated that the spa had refused to even give the telephone number of the police or disclose the identity of the masseur. The mother said that she had not slept since the incident the night before.
Diah Mastura has also posted a follow up to the case with popular rapper Caprice forwarding the case to police officers working on sexual harassment cases.
If you have been a victim of sexual assault or if you know anyone who needs help, seek help from the One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) a service provided at all government general hospitals in Malaysia. This centre is open 24 hours a day and caters to all cases pertaining to abuse, violence and exploitation of adults and children.