President Halimah Yacob has spoken out on the need to look for other ways to help children and stop them from falling prey to rapists. “I find the recent spate of cases involving rapes of children in their own homes by their male relatives highly disturbing and sickening,” said Mdm Halimah in a Facebook post on Monday (Dec 19).
She also mentioned that rapists should not be spared the cane just because they are fifty years old and above. “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.”
She pointed out that in some cases, the rape was committed earlier but reported only after the perpetrator reached fifty years old. “It’s timely that we review this law. It’s our duty to protect our young, and we must not fail them.”
Mdm Halimah revealed that the reported cases follow a certain pattern, wherein the victims were groomed from a very young age by the sexual predators who were either their fathers, stepfathers or other male relatives so that they thought the sickening acts were normal.
“Quite a number of the victims only discovered that such acts were wrong when they attended sex education classes much later in school. The sex predators had preyed on their innocence to persuade the victims that the perversion was alright,” she noted.
Another common trait of the cases was that the victims were reluctant to complain about the sexual abuse for fear of breaking up the family or losing the main breadwinner. “Others were threatened and intimidated into silence.”
“Imagine the terror and vulnerability of a child stuck in a home that’s supposed to be a sanctuary but became a living hell instead,” said Mdm Halimah.
She noted that severe punishments for convicted offenders are important but insufficient in protecting children from such sexual predators. She called on relevant government agencies to look at better ways to protect children from sexual abuse at home.
Members from the online community were in agreement with Mdm Halimah, noting that the abuser should not be spared punishment after inflicting so much pain and trauma on the young victim.
“Can we consider the death penalty for severe cases? Some of their deeds destroyed lives. The victims may not be murdered, but their lives good as destroyed or worse than death,” added Facebook user Jeffrey Poh. /TISG