Corporal punishment included in sentence handed down for 2019 crime.

On July 1, the Singapore High Court handed down its sentence in the case of Ikko Kita, a 38-year-old Japanese national living in the southeast Asian nation where he had worked as a hairstylist. Kita was facing trial stemming from a string on incidents that took place near the end of 2019, in which he was accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman.

According to prosecutors, in the predawn hours of December 30, Kita came across an intoxicated Singaporean college student in a nightlife district in the city. The two were not acquainted, but Kita took the woman into a taxi and then back to his apartment. After arriving at the building, he committed non-consensual indecent acts upon her in the elevator, and then, after taking her into his apartment, raped her. Kita also filmed himself committing the acts, later sending the video to a friend.

Kita was arrested later that same day but released on bail the day after. He had been in police custody since his lower court trial which took place in the spring of 2023. With Kita’s High Court case, in which he pleaded guilty to the charges, now concluded as well, the court has sentenced him to 17 years and six months in jail. As corporal punishment is permissible under the Singaporean justice system, Kita has also been sentenced to be caned, with 20 lashes tacked on to his prison sentence. According to the Japanese embassy in Singapore, this is the first time for a Japanese national to be caned in the country.

Source: Sankei Shimbun, BBC, South China Morning Post
Top image: Pakutaso
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