The drama continued at the Miss World Singapore (MWS) 2013 pageant even after it ended on Sunday night at the Pan Pacific Singapore hotel.

This time round, there was an unsung hero in runner-up Elizabeth Houghton's father, Mr Adrian Houghton.

The 41-year-old operations director was alerted by his mother-in-law to a stranger who had approached his 17-year-old god-daughter, who was with his nine-year-old niece, for her contact details.

It ended with Mr Houghton calling the police.

At that time, Miss Houghton, 18, a British-Eurasian nursing student who had also won the Miss Grand International and Miss Photogenic titles, had already left with her grandparents.

A police spokesman said that investigations are ongoing.

Mr Houghton told The New Paper: "My gut instinct told me that this man was a pervert. I wanted to beat him up because this is my god-daughter and niece we're talking about."

Around 11pm that night, Mr Houghton's mother-in-law had told him that a stranger - a bespectacled man who was around 1.65m-tall - was talking to the two girls.

Mr Houghton said his god-daughter told him that the man had taken her picture with his mobile phone, and asked for her number so that he could send it to her.

He said: "She wouldn't give him her number but still gave him her e-mail address, so luckily we were there to stop it from going any further.

"I don't understand why anybody would think that that was an acceptable thing to do to a 17-year-old girl, in the presence of a nine-year-old girl, without their parents being around.

"He obviously waited until they were slightly separated from our group before he spoke to them.

Mr Houghton then confronted the man and made him delete his goddaughter's details from his phone.

Event organiser Edmund Ooi and a friend had to restrain Mr Houghton from hitting the man.

Mr Ooi said he questioned the man, who claimed that he was a guest of finalist Kayla Wong.

Lying

A check with Miss Wong revealed that the man was lying as she and her five guests had left together around 10.30pm.

Miss Wong said she had no idea who the man was and why he would implicate her in this matter.

After hotel security was alerted to the commotion, Mr Houghton said that he and his friend saw the man start deleting pictures from his mobile phone.

Interpreting that to be an act of guilt, Mr Houghton then called the police.

He said: "We made him wait until the police arrived, then we left the police to deal with the matter. I hope that the police deal with this in a suitable manner.

"I hope it also serves as a warning to other parents out there to keep an eye on their kids."

Miss Houghton said of her dad's actions: "I'm happy that he stepped in.

"My father has always protected me and I'm happy that he was there for my family that came to support me."

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