I do not wish to show any disrespect to the court or to the judge or be accused of "scandalizing the court", but I feel compelled to express an honest personal opinion, without any ill intent.
I find the sentence of 12 weeks jail meted out to Mr. Howard Shaw to be excessive (article here). He has given his reason for his mistake (in engaging in sex with an under-aged girl). He should have been given the benefit of the doubt, unless there are strong evidence to the contrary.
I hope that he will be successful in his appeal and the jail sentence should be squashed. I do not wish to condone the wrong doing, but I strongly feel that the punishment must befit the crime and that, under the circumstances, the sentence had been excessive.
I write this blog to express my empathy to Mr. Howard Shaw and his family in their time of distress, and to wish them all the best for the future.
I find the sentence of 12 weeks jail meted out to Mr. Howard Shaw to be excessive (article here). He has given his reason for his mistake (in engaging in sex with an under-aged girl). He should have been given the benefit of the doubt, unless there are strong evidence to the contrary.
I hope that he will be successful in his appeal and the jail sentence should be squashed. I do not wish to condone the wrong doing, but I strongly feel that the punishment must befit the crime and that, under the circumstances, the sentence had been excessive.
I write this blog to express my empathy to Mr. Howard Shaw and his family in their time of distress, and to wish them all the best for the future.
Yes, very absurd, negligence and lust could not be worse than cheating.
ReplyDeleteWofles Wu cheated twice, very twisted justice, we've rather jail Wu and spare Shaw. No premeditated action on Shaw's part, protection of a minor is one thing, biased sentencing is another.
This is the judicial system with a lot of inconsistencies. 12 weeks for sex with an underaged prostitute? Where is the evidence? The under aged prostitute should be produced in court and hide behind the 'gag order'. If the prostitute is not produced in court there is no evidence of engaging in sex with anyone, right?
ReplyDeleteAnother point is the authority should be responsible for screening under aged prostitutes working in Singapore.
Is this some kind of entrapment?
Kin lian, I think the law itself need to be reviewed
ReplyDeleteAgain, need to preface our comments as not meant to be dis-respectful.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, the results so far, do not suggest a very wise, just system is in place. Of course, we lay persons must have missed some points of law.
Good morning Mr Tan
ReplyDeleteSomething not right with our legal system. I cannot remember what did the 'pimp' gets? Shouldn't he be given the 50 people total sentense plus canning to discourage other to pimp underaged prostitutes. I can imagine the rest will get at least 12 weeks sentense.
The prostitue should be exposed and given a sentense to discourage underage gals from prostituting themselves.
Right now it seems our law indirectly with the so call gag order and womens charter encourage underage gals to prostitute themselves and be protected, very good system.
This is my country, my Singapore.
Former Pei Chun Public School Principal Lee Lip Hong to nine weeks' jail for pleading guilty. This will be the benchmark for the rest of the people involved. Misled about the girl's age is not acceptable by Senior District Judge See Kee Oon. Sentence is passed to reinforce the message of deterrence. From it, I can conclude that the rest of the accused will be facing more than 9 weeks of jail time since the Govt, Govt's Judges and Govt's AG are co-oporating to make sure it happens. If DBS HN5 200 odd investors failed in sueing Govt's own DBS for misleding them to purchase HN5, having the opinion of excessive sentence will not change anything. You know our govt, can eat then eat and show the world. If cannot eat e.g. left hand and right hand situation, keep quiet and convince themselves Silly Singaporeans will forget in a while. So, the 51 accused will continue to be in the news for the next 6 months for political gain....
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