SINGAPORE: A 40-year-old man pleaded guilty on Friday (Jul 17) to raping a 32-year-old woman at a grass field near Tuas West Road MRT station after first noticing her on the same train.

Alam Foysal, a Bangladeshi national, pleaded guilty to one charge of rape without her consent. A second charge of kissing the victim with intent to outrage her modesty was taken into consideration.

A man who was cycling past the open field underneath Tuas Viaduct on the day of the incident saw the victim curled up on the ground with part of her buttocks exposed and blood on her head. He then called the police for assistance. 

A gag order has been imposed to protect the victim's identity. 

THE CASE

The court heard that Foysal had raped the woman with another man. The co-accused is Ahmed Rayhan, a 34-year-old Bangladeshi national.

Foysal and Rayhan came to Singapore in 2012 and 2014 respectively to work as welders at a shipyard. At the time of the offence, the men were both working as welders on the same construction-related project located near Tuas South.

They both stayed at CDPL Tuas dormitory.

At around 7pm on Mar 7, 2022, Foysal and Rayhan met up with a mutual friend near Chinese Garden MRT station and drank five bottles of wine together.

Slightly after midnight on Mar 8, 2022, the two men boarded a train on the East-West Line heading towards Tuas Link. They noticed the victim, a Singaporean woman, in the adjacent train carriage. She was intoxicated.

Court documents stated that both men saw her walking "erratically" up and down the aisle, sitting on the floor and standing up before taking a seat in the train carriage.

Rayhan told Foysal that the victim was drunk, and the men approached the victim with Foysal going first.

Rayhan tapped the woman's shoulder and sat opposite her, while Foysal sat next to the victim. They tried talking to her but she muttered incoherent words and did not respond, according to court documents.

The woman then got up and sat at a different part of the train carriage. The men approached the victim again, and Foysal sat on the floor to talk to her, but got no response.

When the train arrived at Tuas West Road MRT station, Rayhan and Foysal decided to bring the victim out with them. She was unable to maintain her balance or walk steadily on her own, and Foysa...