Singapore student Terence Siow jailed after chief judge overturns probation order for train molestation

The 24-year-old NUS student was initially given a 21-month probation order for outraging the modesty of a 28-year-old woman

But following a public outcry and an appeal from the prosecution, the city state’s chief justice has imposed a harsher sentence

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The offence occurred at a railway station in Singapore in September 2018. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:53pm, 27 Apr 2020Updated: 9:34pm, 27 Apr 2020

A university student in Singapore, whose sentence of probation for molesting a woman on a train sparked an outcry in the city state, will now serve jail time following an appeal.

Terence Siow Kai Yuan was initially given a 21-month probation order in September by a District Court judge, which was overturned on Monday by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, who said that it was “critical” that other “like-minded offenders” understand that such actions will be met with “a sharp punitive response”, according to local news outlet CNA.

Siow, 24, now faces two weeks’ jail time for outraging the modesty of a 28-year-old woman whom he followed off a subway train and touched on the backside in September 2018.

He was suspended by the National University of Singapore, where he studies maths, after a disciplinary board was convened in October 2018 to look into his conduct and is currently “on leave of absence”, according to the university.

Siow is currently on ‘leave of absence’ from the National University of Singapore. Photo: Instagram

In the original sentencing, District Judge Jasvender Kaur had noted Siow’s “potential to excel in life” given his academic performance and his “extremely strong propensity to reform” – one of the legal tests in Singapore for a probation order to be imposed on someone over the age of 21.