Singapore's President Halimah Yacob on Monday called for convicted rapists aged 50 years or older not to be spared caning and has expressed dismay at recent cases of girls being raped in their own homes by fathers.
Under Singapore's Penal Code, a convicted rapist can be jailed for up to 20 years and fined or caned. Those above 50 years of age and above cannot be sentenced to caning but can be imprisoned longer in lieu of corporal punishment. Last week, a 54-year-old man was sentenced to jail in the country for molesting his daughter repeatedly from when she was 10 years old, Channel News Asia reported.
In a Facebook post, President Yacob wrote, "Rapists should not be spared the cane just because they are fifty years old. It's ironic that they could escape from the pain caused by caning despite the lifetime of severe trauma and irreparable damage that they cruelly inflicted on their victims which will last a lifetime."
"In some cases, the rapes were committed earlier but reported only after the perpetrator reached fifty years old. It's time that we review this law," the post said. "It's our duty to protect our young and we must not fail them," it added.
In September last year, Members of Parliament suggested that the age limit for caning be raised. Parliamentarian Murali Pillai said, “I don't see why Parliament should presume in favour of a repeat sex offender that he is not fit to be caned when he is clearly fit enough to commit such heinous acts."
Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said: “there was no reason" to increase the age limit for caning, noting the "significantly lower" number of men over age 50 and arrested for serious offences that attract caning.
In November, a man admitted to trying to rape his four-year-old daughter twice, while another father went on trial for allegedly grooming his daughter over eight years before raping her when she was 12. "I find the recent spate of cases involving rapes of children in their own homes by their male relatives highly disturbing and sickening," the president wrote.
