Law Minister acknowledges 'public disquiet' over Joshua Robinson sentence
Posted 06 Mar 2017 22:08
Updated 06 Mar 2017 23:41
SINGAPORE: Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam said on Monday (Mar 6) that he understands there is "public disquiet" over the four-year sentence for an MMA instructor who sexually assaulted two teenage girls. "People are naturally upset. Parents in particular," he said on the sidelines of a fundraising event.
However, Mr Shanmugam said it is not an appropriate time for him to comment on the case against Joshua Robinson because the matter is not concluded and the time for appeal has not ended.
"The decisions on which charges to proceed is a matter within AGC’s (Attorney-General's Chambers) discretion. AGC makes the decisions based on precedents, and what kind of sentence is meted out depends on previous cases."
"Having said that, my understanding is that AGC is looking into this," he added.
Robinson was sentenced to four years' jail on Mar 2 for sexually assaulting two teenage girls and filming the assaults for his own "perverse pleasure". Police officers had seized 5,902 obscene films, including 321 films of child pornography when they raided his apartment. The haul is believed to be the largest collection of pornography seized from an individual in Singapore.
In July 2015, a month after he was arrested and released on bail, Robinson showed a six-year-old girl an explicit video of his girlfriend performing a sexual act on him, while the girl's father was busy training a short distance away.
On Sunday, an online petition calling for a harsher sentence for Robinson was posted on change.org.
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