A FORMER Singapore General Hospital physiotherapist was sentenced to 15 months' jail and six strokes of the cane on Tuesday for molesting a woman.

Yap Soon Soon, 29, was convicted last week of outraging the modesty of the 31-year-old accounts executive at the SGH Rehabilitation Centre on Sept 9, 2005.

He is appealing against his conviction.

Bail of $15,000 was allowed, pending his appeal.

The woman, who complained of lower back pain, was referred by her doctor to the hospital's physiotherapy department.

According to the woman, Yap had asked if she would mind if he 'put his fingers inside to check the muscle', and pointed at her side.

He then asked her to lower her jeans and she did so, up to the lower part of her abdomen

He then covered that part with a towel.

Suddenly, she felt his fingers in her private parts, and he asked her to contract.

She was shocked and traumatised as she thought that Yap was going to put his fingers inside her jeans to check her back muscle.

Yap's defence was that the woman had complained of lower back pain and stress incontinence.

He said he told her that he would have to put his finger in the private parts and she had agreed to the procedure.

His lawyer, Mr Irving Choh, had told District Judge Ong Chin Rhu that his client was a man of integrity, good character and a helpful physiotherapist who 'conducted himself with absolute discretion and in a completely professional way'.

Since his conviction, counsel said Yap's mental condition had lapsed into major depressive disorder, and he had been having feelings of anxiety, disturbed sleep and loss of appetite.

Yap, who has a cheating conviction, could have been jailed for up to two years or fined or caned or received any two such punishments.