The Singapore police has come out to set the record straight with The Straits Times on the number of National University of Singapore students who have been jailed for sexual offences.

This occurred after the NUS student Monica Baey case caused public outrage and comparisons have been made between her perpetrator and others who were caught committing similar crimes.

Five NUS students jailed in total

The police revealed that, in fact, five NUS students were jailed for sexual offences.

These convictions took place during the academic years from 2015/16 to 2017/18.

The jail terms ranged from 10 days to eight months.

The new information was released by the Singapore police in response to two articles published by The Straits Times that mischaracterised the severity of punishments meted out to undergraduate offenders.

The articles relied on documents by NUS that did not show any sex crime perpetrators being jailed, but to establish a consistency in how the university carries out its punishment for such offences involving its students.

What are the two articles?

The two ST commentaries behind paywalls are:

“How an undergrad challenged NUS’ policy on sexual misconduct”, by Toh Yong Chuan

“Monica Baey was my student and I’m proud of her”, by Tan Ee Lyn

The two commentaries reported that 26 cases of sexual offences took place during the academic years from 2015/16 to 2017/18 and were brought before the NUS Board of Discipline.

Information about the 26 cases were found on NUS’ students’ portal.

Incorrect statistics

However, the police pointed out the statistics derived and presented in the two articles were incorrect and incomplete.

The police said there were, in fact, 25 cases of sexual offences -- not 26 -- brought before the NUS board during the years in question.

“One of the cases was double-counted,” the police said.

Tan also wrote that 16 of these cases were reported to the police.

The police clarified that there were 17 cases.

How 17 cases panned out

Out of these 17 cases, the police prosecuted the accused in nine of these cases in court.

Five cases resulted in jail terms

Out of the nine cases prosecuted in court, five resulted in jail terms of between 10 days and eight months.

Three resulted in supervised probation

The other three accused were given supervised probation.

One discharged

One was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.

“The sentences, including supervised probation, were decided by the courts,” the police said.

Remaining eight police cases

The accused in the seven other cases were given conditional warnings.

One case is still under investigation.

These altogether add up to 17 cases.

The police, in consultation with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, carried out the prosecution.

Only one repeat offender

The number of repeat offenders was also overblown.

While Tan's article said there was 13 repeated offenders, the police said there was only one.

The police said: “In fact, based on police records, there was only one repeat offender, and he was prosecuted in court. A repeat offender is someone who had previously committed a similar offence in police’s records, or re-offended during the course of investigations or prosecution.”

Unfair comparisons

Comparisons between the severity of punishments for a male NUS student and other sexual offenders were also carried out without complete information.

Toh's article compared the punishment of the male NUS student, Nicholas Lim, -- who received a 12-month conditional warning -- with 53 convictions for first-time offenders who pleaded guilty to the charge of insulting the modesty of women in the past four years, where 38 were jailed.

The police said this was not an accurate method of comparison.

"It will not be accurate to take the cases where the accused was charged (as a matter of statistics) and compare it with a person who was not charged," the police said.

“Mr Lim’s case will have to be compared with cases where the accused was not charged.”