SINGAPORE, Sept 10 — A 37-year-old man was jailed for five months yesterday (September 9) for grabbing another man’s genitals over his shorts in a mall toilet last year.
Muhamad Ali Anafiah Jumadi, a Singaporean, pleaded guilty to one charge of outraging the modesty of the 23-year-old victim, who cannot be named due to a court order to protect his identity.
A security officer helped him to file a police report.
DPP Phang sought the sentence imposed, saying that the molestation was a “serious intrusion into the victim’s privacy” and he had done so in a public toilet, which showed his “brazen attitude towards offending”.
However, the prosecutor acknowledged that although the victim was alarmed at the time, he had not suffered any noteworthy or long-lasting psychological damage from Ali’s actions.
Ali’s defence counsel Dhanwant Singh asked for a shorter jail term of three months, arguing that his client had admitted to his offence from the beginning and co-operated with the authorities. He had also pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity.
In sentencing Ali, District Judge Jasvender Kaur said that it was “a grab and not just a touch”, albeit just for a second.
He could have been jailed for up to two years, fined or caned, or punished with any combination of the three. ― TODAY
