Singapore assigns specialist judges to handle sexual offence cases

Singapore, Jan 14 Singapore will introduce measures to improve the management of sexual offence cases, including appointing a specialist group of judges for such cases, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon has said.

All sexual offence cases in the High Court and selected trials in the State Courts will now be assigned to a specialist group of experienced and specially trained judges and district judges, he said on Monday during the Opening of the Legal Year 2025.

"These cases require careful handling because of the impact that the trial process can have on both complainants and accused persons," he added.

Singapore will also pilot enhanced pre-trial checklists designed to protect complainants while ensuring the accused retain the right to a fair trial, Xinhua news agency reported.

The checklists will help identify contentious issues likely to arise during cross-examination, which will enable judges to exclude lines of questioning deemed irrelevant or insulting to complainants.

According to the Supporting Youth Rehabilitation Trends Report issued by the Ministry of Social and Family Development in November 2024, up to 422 young people committed cheating offences in Singapore in 2023, increasing from 260 in 2019.

The offending rate for youths below 21 years in Singapore was 4.9 per 1,000 people in 2023, compared to the rate of 4.6 per 1,000 people in 2022.

The top three crimes committed by youth offenders were shop theft, cheating and related offences, and sexual offences.

Completion rates across rehabilitation programmes remained at around 90 per cent in 2023. The overall two-year recidivism rate remained below 10 per cent among young offenders who completed rehabilitation from 2019 to 2021, according to the report.

The Singapore government has vowed to expand rehabilitative support for older youth offenders and work with youths' families and community partners to ensure the rehabilitative needs of youth offenders.

Source: IANS