AMONG the usual flyers and unsolicited junk mail, residents of a Tanah Merah condominium received a surprise last week.

It came in the form of a letter with the intriguing title: 'Open Daylight Robbery of Student's Father.'

It alleged that one of their neighbours was having an affair with a married man.

Last Wednesday, each of the more than 200 apartments there received the two-page typed letter in their letter boxes.

Claiming to be one of the man's three children, the letter writer said the woman, 39, had befriended their father while teaching at a kindergarten that the children attended eight years ago.

The writer claimed in the letter that their father became attracted to the woman after she confided in him that her former husband was ill-treating her.

Not long after, their father started an affair with the woman and even bought her the apartment where she now lives with her daughter.

The writer claimed his mother begged the woman to leave his father, but the woman said she did not mind being a mistress and she would end the affair only if the man initiated it.

It is understood the woman is Singaporean, and divorced.

The chairman of the condominium's management committee confirmed that every resident had received the letter.

He said: 'The letter writer certainly spent some money sending the letters out as all the letters were mailed to us. Even the guardhouse received a copy.

'We also received a similar letter alleging the same thing about the same woman last year.'

The committee chairman added that two residents had told him they were unhappy over the letter.

Moral issue

He said: 'They feel the affair is a moral issue because the woman is carrying on the relationship in the presence of her young daughter (from her previous marriage).

'Residents are concerned as they have children who are the same age as the daughter.

'But the management committee can't do anything as the woman is the rightful owner of the apartment and we can't possibly chase her away.'

It is understood the man and his family does not live in the same condominium. One of the security guards said he was appalled at the contents of the letter, which The New Paper on Sunday has a copy of.

Said the security guard, in Mandarin: 'I felt the letter was written in a 'li pu' (Mandarin for excessive) way as it appeared to be washing dirty linen in public.'

Is the letter defamatory?

Family lawyer Koh Tien Hua from Harry Elias Partnership said there is little legal recourse for the man and his alleged mistress if the said affair is true.

Said Mr Koh: 'It is defamatory only if the contents of the letter are proven to be false.

'But if the man and his alleged mistress feel they are being harassed, it is possible to take civil action and apply for an injunction to stop the letter writers from further harassing them.'

The New Paper on Sunday could not get the woman mentioned in the letter to verify the allegations despite repeated attempts to contact her.

Calls to her handphone went unanswered and she did not reply to our text messages.

When we visited her apartment, no one answered the door. We could hear a dog barking and a woman talking from inside the apartment, but the occupants refused to answer the door.

But the letter writer's aunt said the family has been thrown in turmoil since the affair.

The aunt, a lecturer who wanted to be known only as Ms Ng, is the man's brother and claimed the affair had been going on for eight years.

Ms Ng said her sister-in-law suspected her brother of infidelity when one day, he came home with lipstick marks on his shirt.

Ms Ng declined to put us in touch with her brother's family, saying they would not want publicity.

Private investigator

Through Ms Ng, The New Paper contacted a private investigator, who had been hired by the family to spy on her brother.

Her brother has two sons and a daughter, aged between 10 and 14, while his alleged mistress has a 13-year-old daughter from her previous marriage.

The investigator's photos showed the man holding hands with his alleged mistress and going out with her and her daughter.

Ms Ng said of her sister-in-law: 'She considered divorce many, many times, but everybody in the family asked her to hang on for her children's sake. We don't want a broken family for the three young children.'

This article was first published in The New Paper.