Yet, at least 87 of his former pupils got together to demonstrate support, writing testimonials, visiting him in jail and showing up at court. On each day that the Straits Times reported on the case, the paper carried a fresh photograph of a bunch of late teenagers and 20-ish young men trooping into the courthouse. All of a sudden, we have to add this dissonant picture to our mental image of safe, obedient Singapore.

Without having interviewed the young men, there's little I can add about their thoughts and motivation, beyond what have been reported in the newspaper reports. But on the face of it, it looks once again like something we've always known, that when you get to know a person well, and then find out that he is homosexual (and in this case that he abused his charges!), the sexuality is a minor issue. Your regard for that person is, typically, not devalued by it.

Yet, while private opinion is one thing, to band together to show support is something else. In the case of the younger ones shown in newspaper photographs, who don't look over 18, one wonders what their parents might have to say about their sons being shown marching to court. Somewhere here is an indicator of attitudinal change. Lost causes are not untouchable and gay tutors – even one accused of paedophilia -- are not pariahs.

 
The value of the erotic

I think we know, even if sometimes, we don't wish to articulate it, that sexuality may have everything to do with Philip Lim as a good teacher. The erotic is a powerful motivator. That Lim only chose to tutor boys, not girls, suggested that it was a major consideration for him. Erotic interest probably drove his passion, and sustained his dedication and attentiveness to his boys. The boys might not have known (or perhaps some did?) about the underlying erotic interest, but they surely appreciated the resulting care and concern.

It is an uncomfortable thought that the erotic can be so intrinsic to the quality of a person's work, especially teaching, but if you think about it, why shouldn't that be so? The erotic is, after all, a powerful motivator in life generally.

This is a good instance for us to examine why we expect to divorce the erotic from our work, particularly, from teaching and parenting. Yes, when it spills over to abuse, it is inexcusable, and here abuse means anything which leads to physical or mental pain -- e.g. burning children with cigarette butts or making them work 14 hours a day weaving carpets, as much as sexual abuse.

By Chong Chee Kin

In the public gallery were about 60 of his ex-students, from teenage boys to men in their 30s, who turned up to show support for Philip Lim Beng Cheok, 52, who had tutored them in mathematics at various times over the past 20 years. Their dismay was palpable when sentence was passed 18 years' jail.

He had turned the lives of some of his former students around - rescuing juvenile delinquents from street gangs and tutoring them for free. But he had also abused his position of authority and trust when he got five boys - aged between 13 and 15 - to commit lewd acts in his Ang Mo Kio flat between December 2000 and July last year.

He also produced medical reports to argue that there was a high chance that people like Lim - a self-confessed homosexual who was diagnosed as a paedophile after his arrest - would revert to their old ways. He told the court that Lim's victims were especially vulnerable to him because he had 'unrestricted access' to them.

By most accounts, Lim, who tutored boys exclusively, was a good teacher. He was paid $150 a month for each student. He taught the boys in a group in his flat, where he lived alone, and exercised iron discipline over them. Some of them, including two of the five who were abused, sometimes stayed over, especially when examinations were near.

His deeds would not have been uncovered if a school counsellor of one of the five boys had not taken the boy aside to ask him why his attitude towards work and his relationship with his mother had deteriorated. That was when police stepped in and the other four boys, all from good schools, admitted that they had been abused too.

A relative of one of the boys who was also an ex-student of Lim's told The Straits Times 'When we first found out, we were so disappointed that he had done that kind of thing. We cannot believe that someone whom we had so much respect for would do something like that.' Despite this, he penned a glowing testimonial for Lim. 'I really owe him a lot. Despite getting scolded when I did not study, I still respect him a lot.

He was just one of 87 ex-students who did so - a point that Justice Woo described as a 'strong mitigating factor'. 

To his ex-students, who included high-ranking civil servants, professionals and academics, the idea that the man they called 'Sir' was capable of such acts was unbelievable.

After the news of the arrest in July last year, engineer Kelvin Loh, 25, who knew Lim in 1994, set up a website for all former students to keep them updated on their mentor's case. On it, the former students rostered themselves to visit Lim at the Queenstown Remand Prison on different days.

Their testimonials were filled with stories about how Lim had helped them not just with their schoolwork, but even with their personal lives. Trader See Kok Lim said in his testimonial that Lim helped him escape from a gang in his youth by paying the gang leader for his release.

By Elena Chong

A port worker stayed by his wife's side while she gave birth to their first child, then went home and molested his stepdaughter.

The 30-year-old man first told the 12-year-old girl's two younger sisters to stop watching television and go to bed.

He then asked the victim to go to his bedroom where he molested her and had anal intercourse with her.

This happened at the family's Bedok flat on Oct 27, 2001, the night the man's natural daughter was born.

But the sexual abuse started even before he married the victim's mother, a divorcee with three daughters, and continued for almost two years.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Imran Abdul Hamid said that in early January 2001, when the girl was 11, the man saw old scars on her body caused by scabies, and called her into his bedroom on the pretext of applying some medicated lotion to the scars.

After applying some lotion to her arms, he asked her to remove her T-shirt and singlet so that he could apply some to her torso.

He instead removed her lower garments and molested her, stopping only when she gestured that it was painful.

His marriage to the girl's mother took place about two to three weeks later.

There were several other instances of sexual abuse between then and last September, involving molest, outrage of modesty, forced oral sex and anal sex.

The truth came out when the girl was referred to the school counsellor after missing school for two days last September. The victim made a police report on Sept 30.

The man, who was arrested three days later, told the police he had done it as he could not control his lust.

Pleading for leniency yesterday, he said he regretted what he had done, and was prepared to face the consequences. He promised not to repeat the offences, and urged the court to give him a chance to redeem himself.

But Justice Woo Bih Li said that, as a stepfather, the man was supposed to protect the victim. 'Instead, you sexually abused her... and also caused her pain. What you have done is despicable.'

He sentenced him to a total of 30 years and 23 strokes of the cane on the 11 charges he admitted to. Another 13 charges were taken into consideration.