K Shanmugam asked his Ministries to consider harsher punishment for cases like Joshua Robinson

Shanmugam: "I can understand people’s unhappiness".

Martino Tan | March 08, 2017, 09:16 PM

Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam, who is currently away on a working trip in Australia, has weighed in on the case of Joshua Robinson in response to media queries.

Robinson is a 39-year-old American expatriate who has been jailed four years for having sex with two 15-year-old girls and showing an obscene film to a six-year-old girl, among other offences.

Minister Shanmugam said that he could understand people’s unhappiness and have asked his officials to "consider what approaches are necessary for offenders like Robinson to be dealt with more severely through higher penalties".

He added that, as the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) has explained, because the sex was consensual, the law does not provide for caning.

The most serious charge that the AGC could have brought on the facts of the case was the offence of sexual penetration of a minor under 16 years of age, and that caning is not provided for any of the offences he was charged with.

Shanmugam also compared an earlier example to the current case:

There is a wide range of behaviour which is currently dealt with, in respect of having sex with under-aged girls, for example: (a) a young man of 18 having sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend ; (b) A few years ago we had 51 men charged with having sex with an under-aged prostitute. They were jailed for between 4 and 20 weeks each.

In the context of all the facts, viz having sex with two underaged girls and showing pornographic material to a 6-year-old, Robinson’s conduct here, was more serious (even though the girls agreed to having sex with him).

Shanmugam's views on the AGC's decision

Singapore’s public prosecutor has decided it will not be appealing against the sentence imposed on Robinson, as it took into consideration that a guilty plea from Robinson would spare the three victims the trauma of being cross-examined at trial.

On AGC's decision, Shanmugam said,

"AGC have explained why they have decided that they could not appeal. I can understand that having taken a position in court, on what the sentence should be, it is difficult for AGC to now appeal. As they have explained, the position they took was based on precedent. In our system, decisions on prosecution, sentence to ask for, and appeals, are all within the discretion of the AGC. We need to respect the decision of AGC.

If we don’t think the sentences, based on precedents, are adequate, then we consider what can be done. I do think that the sentences for such offences committed by Robinson need to be relooked at. That is why I have asked my Ministries to study this."

As of Wednesday afternoon, an online petition calling for a harsher sentence to be imposed on him has gathered more than 27,700 signatures.

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Top photo from K Shanmugam Facebook page.

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