SENTENCE FOR ENHANCED PUBLIC PROTECTION
The SEPP will be limited to “extremely dangerous offenders” convicted of serious violent or sexual crimes, and who pose a substantial risk of causing serious physical or sexual harm to others, the ministries said.
These offences – to be prescribed in a new Schedule under the Criminal Procedure Code – include culpable homicide, attempted murder, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous means, aggravated molestation, rape, and sexual penetration of a minor.
The ministries added that safeguards will be put in place to ensure the sentence is fair.
An SEPP will comprise a minimum term of five to 20 years as determined by the courts, and could go up to life. The courts will generally consider risk assessment reports by the Institute of Mental Health and other experts before sentencing.
Only offenders who are aged 21 or above at the time of the offence can be given a SEPP.
These offenders may be released “on licence” after serving a minimum jail term – meaning that they would have to comply with certain conditions, such as e-tagging – and only if the Minister for Home Affairs assesses that they no longer pose a threat to the public.
They will then be subjected to a review every two years and can be unconditionally discharged, bringing the sentence to an end.
However, if they are not found suitable to be released on licence, they can be detained for as long as required – up to life – for public safety. This will be reviewed yearly.
This differs from imprisonment, corrective training or preventive detention, where an offender must be released after serving their sentence.
The government has been looking at ways to better protect the public from such dangerous offenders, said the Law and Home Affairs ministries, while citing some cases, including serial sex offenders who preyed on children.
In September last year, a 31-year-old man was sentenced to 40 years’ jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane for raping and sexually assaulting six boys over an eight-year period.
The prosecution said it ranked “among the worst cases of paedophilic sexual abuse” to come before the courts, while a mental health report found that the man presented a “clear danger to young boys”.
In July 2020, a 47-year-old man was sentenced to 24 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane for sexually assaulting his girlfriend’s eight-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son, both of whom had low IQs. He forced them to simulate sexual intercourse with each other and filmed the acts.
He began committing these offences just two years after his release from prison for sexually abusing his four-year-old daughter. He was diagnosed as a paedophile with a high risk of sexual offending.