Call for more options in sentencing those with special needs in Singapore
SHOULD a person with special needs be culpable for a sexual crime if there was no bad intent or awareness of wrongdoing?
This issue was widely debated recently after a 22-year-old man with autism was arrested in Malaysia last month for allegedly touching a woman’s chest when out celebrating his birthday with his family. Ahmad Ziqri Morshidi is now out on bail. Fearing that his condition would worsen if he went through the legal process, his mother is appealing to the victim to withdraw the complaint. More than 30,000 people have signed a petition for him to be treated fairly.
In Singapore, there has been a similar debate about how to deal with people with special needs who behave lewdly in public, after a video of an autistic man masturbating on an MRT train there was posted online and went viral a few weeks ago. Special needs organisations and lawyers in the republic told The Straits Times that if a person with special needs is arrested for a crime, he is not shielded from the law or given any blanket legal “immunity” – and they agree with such a position.
However, they hope that more can be done in reforming and protecting such vulnerable individuals.
“Currently, there is prosecutorial discretion in that the AttorneyGeneral’s Chamber here will consider on a case-by-case basis whether to prosecute, depending on the profile of the accused with special needs,” said lawyer Loh Wai Mooi.
“In sentencing, the court will usually take into account the appropriateness of the sentence,” said Loh, who is also the vice-president of the management committee of the Autism Resource Centre (ARC).
Senior lawyer Peggy Yee, who is also vice-president of the Disabled People’s Association (DPA), said having a disability in itself is not a defence but it may be a mitigating factor.
“We hope there will be varied sentencing options that accommodate persons with disabilities, especially those who have issues understanding the consequences of their actions, or have issues with impulse control and behaviour regulation,” she said.
Loh said the court in Singapore has paid more attention to the reformative aspects when deciding on sentencing lately, and the ARC feels that more can be done in this area. Last month, a five-judge Court of Appeal upheld the sentence of reformative training handed down to a teenage rapist in a case that raised the issue of sentencing options for young offenders with intellectual disabilities.
The apex court said it chose the “least bad” option of reformative training for the teen, who has a below-average IQ of 61 and is now 18.
Prosecutors who lodged the appeal sought jail of between 15 and 18 years and at least 15 strokes of the cane for the teen who had, at the age of 14, raped a 16-year-old girl.
Criminal lawyer Josephus Tan, who has handled many cases involving young offenders with special needs, agreed that there is a need for more rehabilitation options for those with mental disabilities.
The DPA said it is currently working to educate legal professionals, persons with disabilities and their caregivers about their legal rights and the support schemes available.
There is, for example, the Appropriate Adult scheme, in which trained volunteers accompany suspects during police interviews. This was started in 2013 for persons with intellectual disabilities or mental health problems.
Commenting on the case of the man shown masturbating in a video, DPA executive director Marissa Lee said it hopes that people will pause to ask if the behaviour “is truly malicious”.
“At the very least you should not take a video of it so that the person, and the family, will be judged in the court of public opinion without any context,” she added.
An aunt of the man later hit out at the person who had posted the video on Facebook on Sept 16, which was shared more than 850 times before it was taken down a few days later.
In a Facebook post, she said he was bullied in school. “It appears that one of the things the bullies did to him involves masturbation... Instead of having the courage to confront and correct, the person took the video and posted it on the Net.” She later told The Straits Times that her nephew was seen scratching himself because of rashes near his private parts.
Susan George, principal psychologist at Rainbow Centre, a charity for persons with disabilities, said people with special needs and their families are likely to face more difficulties in integrating into the community because of the video being made public.
The centre offers courses to help caregivers and professionals understand sexuality development in children and youth with disabilities.
Glenn Quint, a sexuality and relationship education specialist who is also with the centre, said: “Apart from teaching them not to exhibit private behaviours in public and how to protect themselves from sexual abuse, we should also teach them about the positive aspects of human sexuality.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network