HE WAS a recalcitrant drug abuser who was absent from his daughter's life until his release from jail at the end of 2005.

A couple of months after the 'family reunion', he forced her to perform oral sex on him.

She was only five years old at that time.

On Wednesday, the 38-year-old jobless man was jailed for 15 years by the High Court after admitting that he made his young daughter perform oral sex on him six times. He also admitted to sniffing glue.

In sentencing the man, Justice Woo Bih Li said a father should protect and love his daughter, but instead, he took advantage of her to satisfy himself. 'I have no sympathy for you,' said the judge.

The girl, now 8, is in Primary 2. She was born out of wedlock to the man and his girlfriend.

When the girl was six months old, her mother walked out of the family while the man was in a drug rehabilitation centre.

The infant was left in the care of the man's mother but she later became bedridden from a stroke.

Since 2001, the girl's aunt has been taking care of her.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times