Section 376E and Section 376EA of the Penal Code 1871 INTRODUCTION In contemporary times, “grooming” activities have now infiltrated the virtual setting and evolved into a social risk for unsuspecting minors or young adults. “Grooming” activities are often difficult...
Section 375 (1) of the Penal Code 1871 states that any man who penetrates the vagina of a woman with his penis — (a) without her consent; or (b) with or without her consent, when she is below 14 years of age, shall be guilty of an offence. The...
An act of molestation is also referred to as 'outrage of modesty'. According to the Annual Crime Brief 2021 published by the Singapore Police force (SPF), outrage of modesty cases accounted for 42.3% of all sexual crime cases reported in 2021. Section 354 of the...
In 2014, a Malaysian teacher faced criminal trespass and immigration charges in Singapore when she slipped past immigration officers at Woodlands Checkpoint by tailgating a car. She faced potential jail terms of up to 6 months on her 2 immigration charges and 3 months...
The Criminal Law Reform Bill of 2019 took effect from 1 January 2020. It enhanced penalties for sexual exploitation offences involving minors below the age of 16 and addressed new offences for sexual exploitation of minors between 16 and 18 years of age. The...
Illegal Sexual Communication With A Minor Sexual communication, or sexting, is the transmission of sexually explicit content from one party to another. This content can be in the form of images, videos or even sexually explicit text messages. While it is not illegal...
Criminal Law Reform Bill 2019 The Criminal Law Reform Bill of 2019 was passed on 6 May 2019 and has since taken effect on 1 January 2020. Section 509 of the Penal Code, which previously addressed the wide range of offences relating to the insult of modesty of a woman,...
Outrage of modesty (more commonly known as molestation) cases are fairly common in Singapore, and are widely reported in the media, especially on Stomp. In August 2018, it was reported in the Straits Times that the number of molestation cases was on the rise....
Our client was charged by the police for an Outrage of Modesty offence under Section 354 of the Penal Code. He came to see us shortly after being charged. We got our heads down and swiftly drafted pre-mention representations to the police and Attorney General’s...
The Court of Appeal in BMD v Public Prosecutor [2015] SGCA 70 stated that "It is trite that where no other evidence is available, a complainant’s testimony can constitute proof beyond reasonable doubt – but only when it is so “unusually convincing” as to overcome any...