A BUSINESSMAN looked up in relief on Tuesday when he was given a discharge amounting to an acquittal for allegedly molesting his 13-year-old daughter in June last year.

The prosecution told the district court that doctors believed that the 67-year-old man had been suffering from a sleep behaviour disorder at that time.

Outside the court, the man was overheard telling his son, 34, and a daughter, 21, that he hopes to reunite his family. They all declined to be interviewed.

His youngest daughter, who is from his second wife, had been placed in a welfare home after she reported that her father had touched her buttocks, breast and private parts at about 11pm on June 26 last year.

It is not known how long she stayed there before moving in with one of her siblings.

Neither the father nor the girl can be named as her identity is protected by the court as it is a molest case.

His lawyer, Mr Anand Nalachandran, said that his client had sought treatment for his sleeping disorder in 2005 but it grew worse.

Family members would complain that he would shout, kick and punch the wall - and even hit them - while asleep.

He started sleeping on a mattress on the floor, as he would frequently fall out of bed.

After the incident with his daughter, the man, who manages his own electronic parts firm, was diagnosed by four specialists in private practice as suffering from a sleeping disorder and could be sleepwalking.

This was confirmed by specialists at the Institute of Mental Health.

Doctors told The Straits Times that sleepwalkers can perform actions as simple as sitting up in bed, to complex ones such as walking about, eating and even talking to others, all with their eyes open but brains in deep sleep. They wake up with no recollection of their actions.

Singapore General Hospital head of psychiatry Ng Beng Yeong, who specialises in sleep disorders, said that sleepwalkers can and do hurt themselves when in a semi-conscious state.

On April 9, tour guide Jason Ong, 39, fell to his death from his sixth-storey flat in Punggol Central.

The family believes he was sleepwalking when he fell. He had opened windows while asleep before.