A 54-year-old American man received a 24-year prison sentence on 27 Oct 2025 for raping his 11-year-old daughter. His lover, 33-year-old Filipino maid Shiela Marie Ibales Albao, had pushed him to commit the acts throughout one night in March 2023. She got 22 years behind bars.
The man pleaded guilty to three charges of statutory rape and one charge of perverting the course of justice. Another 12 charges were considered during sentencing.
Albao pleaded guilty to three charges of abetting the man to commit the rapes. Eleven other charges were taken into consideration.
How They Met
The victim’s parents split in 2019. She lived with her mother and maternal relatives during weekdays. Weekends were spent at her father’s place.
The man met Albao through a dating app in early 2022. They started a sexual relationship. Albao would visit his rental apartment on Sundays during her day off. He told his daughter that Albao was his girlfriend but warned her to keep quiet about the relationship.
When apart, the couple traded sexually explicit messages. These messages detailed disturbing fantasies involving threesomes and bestiality.
The Night It Happened
On 17 Mar 2023, the victim was at her father’s apartment for their regular weekend arrangement. That evening, the man and Albao exchanged sexualised messages about the girl.
Albao told the man she wanted a photo of the victim performing an indecent act on him. He suggested framing it as a “bet” the girl needed to win.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Shiau Yin said the couple exploited the victim’s competitive nature.
The man showed the victim a message from Albao. She claimed she “bet 50” the girl couldn’t perform the act. He recorded video clips with his phone and sent them to Albao. When Albao asked if the girl said anything, he replied: “She likes that she won the bet”.
Albao issued another challenge. The victim would win S$100 if she performed oral sex. The man recorded this too and sent it to Albao.
More sexual acts followed. The girl was made to hold a karaoke set above her head during some of them. He sent all the videos to Albao. She responded with voice messages congratulating the victim for winning S$400 and praising her performance.
At one point, Albao complained that one video didn’t show the man’s face. He redid it to capture his face.
The Rapes
After the girl fell asleep, Albao pushed for more acts. The man raped and sexually assaulted his daughter while she slept.
The sexual assaults occurred between 8.30pm on 17 Mar 2023 and 8.50am the next morning, The Straits Times reported.
About two months later, on 4 May 2023, the victim told her form teacher what happened. The school called the police.
The Arrest
Police planned the arrest carefully to avoid tipping off the man. On 5 May 2023, he was told that the victim and her mother were at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. He needed to come immediately.
Something felt off. The man sent a voice message to Albao telling her to remove her WhatsApp profile picture, which showed her performing a sex act on him. He told her not to message him until he texted first.
He deleted all his communications with Albao from his phone. This included photos and videos he had taken of himself sexually abusing his daughter. He instructed her to do the same, calling it damning evidence.
Police arrested him at the hospital that day. Albao was arrested the next day.
What Investigators Found
The man refused to cooperate during investigations. He wouldn’t provide the passcode to his devices. He initially denied committing any sexual acts on the victim.
Albao hadn’t managed to delete her communications with the man before police seized her phone. When confronted with the videos and photos, the man claimed he couldn’t recall doing any of it. He blamed undiagnosed Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, a head injury, and alcoholic blackout.
He was remanded for a forensic psychiatric evaluation. Results showed intact intellectual functioning, executive functioning, and working memory.
He maintained at least some awareness and control of his actions. He understood that what he did to the victim was wrong.
The Sentence
Both sentences included an additional one-year term instead of caning. Justice Aidan Xu agreed with the prosecution that this would compensate for the lost deterrent effect of caning.
The man cannot be caned because he’s above 50 years old. Albao cannot be caned because she’s a woman.
