Singapore’s High Court on Monday sentenced Ikko Kita, a 38-year-old hairdresser, for assaulting a then 20-year-old Singapore university student who was drunk within the early morning hours of December 30, 2019.
According to court documents, Kita took an unknown woman to his apartment by taxi and engaged in involuntary sexual activity along with her, filming the incident.
He was arrested by police the identical day and released on bail the subsequent day. He was charged in a lower court in May last 12 months and has been in pretrial detention since then.
Presiding Judge Aedit Abdullah said the attacks were “brutal and cruel” within the ruling, adding that the sentence must have been harsh given the circumstances of the offences committed against the victim, who was drunk and defenceless.
Kita confessed to the acts he was charged with.
Under Singapore law, the court can impose caning for serious offences similar to rape, armed robbery and vandalism.
Singapore is certainly one of the Southeast Asian countries where caning is a punishment.
