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I am a Practitioner of 'The 7e Way of Leaders' where a Leader will Envision, Enable (ASK for TOP D), Empower, Execute, Energize, and Evolve grounded on ETHICS!

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Daily Lessons from Life 06 March 2017 - MMA Sexual Offender?

"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.
Parent and early childhood educator Sarah Woon, who started the petition, said she found the four-year sentence "unacceptable and absolutely intolerable". As of Monday evening, the petition has collected more than 9,300 signatures."

Interestingly the Minister did not comment on the fact that this Robinson guy was 'featured' in a promotion video used in a Contact Singapore site to attract foreign talents to Singapore which also garnered some unwanted attention. Of course the video was done a few years ago before his conviction and MOST likely at a time when S'pore is trying to promote MMA as a sports for its sports and tourism industry. Otherwise, I am not sure a MMA instructor would be considered a FT needed BADLY by S'pore.

Anyway, the key in this case is: the 'apparent lightness' of the sentence meted out. Also, the main concern of the 'appeal for a heavier sentence' folks must be: has this person repented? was there any remorse? how sure is the psychiatrist and psychologist that he would not re-offend and hurt other young people and ruin their lives for a long time or forever? Was his 'showing' sexually explicit video to a 6-year old girl while on bail and with her dad just busy practising MMA taken into consideration?

While society should give offenders a 2nd chance, it has to be careful not to let kindness be taken as a weakness. It has to also assure innocent people that unrepentant and untreated sexual offenders that pray on young people will be given appropriate sentence to deter any would be imitators!

I gladly add my signature to the online appeal.

May the kids been sexually assaulted found their peace and are on the way to full recovery from the dastardly attacks.

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