Rajinder Singh: Jamisontown Sikh priest jailed for child sexual act offences

A Sikh priest who preyed on underage girls in western Sydney, later telling police the motivation behind his actions was that he was “horny”, has been jailed.

A Sikh priest who preyed on underage girls in western Sydney, later providing an explanation to police as being “horny”, has been jailed.

Rajinder Singh, 26, who resided at the Sikh Centre in Jamisontown where he was a priest, appeared via audiovisual link at Penrith Local Court on Friday.

He had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of intentionally do sexual act with child over 10 and under 16 and three counts of stalk or intimidate intending fear of physical harm.

The court heard Singh, last December, asked young girls for kisses as he approached them at Tench Reserve, Jamisontown while touching his groin. Later that day, he inappropriately touched an 11-year-old girl getting changed inside a public bathroom at a nearby water park. He has been in custody since his arrest on the same day of offending.

Tench Reserve, Jamisontown. Source: Google Maps.

Magistrate Stephen Corry took into account Singh’s background and lack of a criminal record.

“He appears to have lived an isolated existence from the broader community,” he said. “It was put that he was sexually naive.”

However, he could not look past the discrepancies in Singh’s story.

“The defendant has given different explanations to the police and community corrections in regards to his offending,” Mr Corry said.

“He said “I don’t know, maybe horny” when asked for an explanation by police about the Cables water park and indicated he thought she was aged 6-8. Whereas in the community corrections response he said … he did not have knowledge about the age of consent in Australia and thought the girls were 23 to 24 years of age.”

Cables Water Park, Penrith. Source: Google Maps.

The magistrate explained that “there was no way to reconcile those comments” since India “inherited a British system of justice” and differences between laws would not be extensive.

“While there’s no evidence led about the laws in respect to offences against children in India, it is difficult to accept that in a civilised country they wouldn’t have laws against offences against children.

“Having seen each of the victims give victim statements, I don’t accept that the defendant could be confused about their ages.

“All the girls, especially the youngest, would have been terrified of the behaviour of the offender.”

The court heard Singh’s experience in custody should be taken into account on sentence.

“It’s the first time he’s been in prison in Australia, he doesn’t speak English and has been isolated from his community so it’s likely his time in custody will be more difficult. Having said that, he is clearly remorseful …” the magistrate said.

Rajinder Singh was handed a sentence in Penrith Local Court.

Singh was handed an aggregate sentence of two years and eight months with a non-parole period of 20 months, after which he may be sent home.

“Non-parole presented some difficulties because the offender is a non-citizen and his visa was revoked so he is ultimately likely to be deported.”

Singh will be eligible for parole in August 2023.