“I was nearly raped while serving time in prison for match fixing in Singapore”, was the bone-chilling confession a Singapore court once heard.
This, is just one of a number of shocking claims by former Sembawang Rangers and Geylang United FC goalkeeper Lutz Pfannenstiel, carried in a news report by The New Paper in September 2011.
He also alleges that he was physically abused by prison inmates and had his nose broken at least twice, and that Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) officers had assaulted him during questioning.
Pfannenstiel, 38, told UK football magazine Four Four Two that in 2001, he was nearly raped by other inmates during his 101-day stay at the Queenstown Remand Prison.
In 2008, the German national became the only footballer to have played more than 400 games on six continents for 25 different clubs.
He claimed that during 48 hours of detention, he was interrogated like a “hardened criminal” by CPIB officers who slapped him and kept him naked in a cold cell.
A CPIB spokesman called Mr Pfannenstiel’s allegations “baseless and unfounded”, adding that the “CPIB officers had conducted themselves professionally” during investigations.
Whatever one makes of it, prison rape is actually reality. It really happens.
“We do not condone it in any way”, highlighted a spokesperson from Changi Prison who sheepishly told The Independent when probed on the question of prison rape in prison compounds.
Though statistics were not available at the time of writing, it has been widely believed that if prison rape could occur in other jurisdictions just why can’t it happen here?
In 2014, Australia’s ABC news reported a 19-year-old first-time male prisoner was raped by two male inmates at maximum security Hakea Prison in Perth. The ABC understands the victim was on remand and it was the first time he had been to prison. The ABC has been told he had only been in Hakea for about two weeks when the incident occurred.
The Department of Corrective Services today confirmed it had referred the matter to police for investigation. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-05/youth-alleged-gang-raped-in-hakea-prison-while-on-remand/5869586
Prison rape therefore, is a serious matter and the fact it could happen means a transmutation of the problems seen in society over to a penal facility.
For one, there is every possibility of the transmission of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). To date there have been no statistics of prisoners being infected with HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – of being diagnosed and warded for treatment in the hospitals in Singapore.
Even as Singapore has not had any incident of incidence of real prison rape except for what was reported by The New Paper , The Independent understands from ex-prisoners that most instances arise out of gambling debts – which though forbidden in prisons – does sometimes happen away from the watchful glare of prison wardens.
And the ones who are vulnerable are usually effeminate men with good looks.