A 37-year old man was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment and 4 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to offences for outraging the modesty of a woman and theft – he had molested a woman in a crowded MRT train and also stolen a $900 bicycle.
Here are some brief, available facts on the case:
- He pleaded guilty to 2 charges. 2 other charges were taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing. He has had previous convictions for multiple offences since 1999 including criminal trespass, insulting the modesty of a woman, theft, outrage of modesty and housebreaking.
- During the journey on the MRT train, the victim felt that she was being touched and later spotted Aw’s finger touching her.
- For the theft offence, Aw went to Block 544 Jelapang Road in Bukit Panjang to steal a bicycle belonging to a sales manager even though the bicycle had been secured with a padlock and chain to a metal pipe.
- The Prosecution highlighted that the aggravating factors in the molest case included the fact that the offence took place on public transportation and the incident had left the victim traumatised.
- Aw was a repeat offender for offences of outrage of modesty and he had been on 3 previous occasions in 2005, 2013 and 2014.
- His sentence was backdated to the date on which he was first remanded in custody.
More information on the case may be found here.