A Singaporean girl recently took to Instagram to expose the authorities’ and NUS’ poor handling of her case where a male student had secretly filmed her taking a shower.
Battling for a more justified punishment, the boy gets away with just a slap on the wrist which of course leaves the victim frustrated. The male student was only given a 12-months conditional warning (he will only be charged if he commits another crime), and a one semester suspension from NUS.
Source: Instagram
Her case caused a public outcry for a more justified punishment which will fit his crime and now that the cat’s out of the bag, NUS released a statement saying that they will conduct a review of its current disciplinary and support frameworks.
NUS tells CNA,
“We are sorry for Miss Monica Baey’s distressing experience, which is of extreme concern to the University. We are in the process of reaching out to her to offer our support and assistance.”
NUS will be setting up a committee to review their current disciplinary and support frameworks and expects to improve from there.
“What has been committed is serious … When such offences are committed, the NUS Board of Discipline, which comprises student and faculty representatives, will also conduct its own disciplinary proceedings,” said NUS.
Source: Instagram
The distress of the 23-year-old victim also came from having concrete evidence such as CCTV footage and the actual video of the perpetrator recording her in the shower. In the CCTV footage, it can be seen that the suspect was “trying to enter different toilets to find his victim” which implies that the boy was determined to commit the crime.
However, the authorities only gave him that 12-months conditional warning, and the investigating officer said she’ll have to “accept the outcome” or “go to NUS and push for further action”.
Now, there’s a petition from the public asking for a stricter punishment to teach sexual offenders a lesson, that they cannot easily get away with such a crime. The petition currently garnered over 4,000 signatures too!
While most women are too embarrassed to speak out about such incidents, Monica who has done so should be given reassurance from the authorities and the university that the perpetrator is rightfully punished. We hope Monica is able to obtain the ‘justice’ she seeks and that NUS is able to greatly improve their framework so no other female student will have to feel like how Monica did!
Also read: NUS Student Was Secretly Filmed Bathing by Friend’s BF, but Uni Wants to “Keep it Quiet”
