Japanese man sentenced to 17.5 years in prison and 20 strokes of the cane in Singapore for rape

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Japanese hairdresser has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison and 20 strokes of the cane in Singapore for what the judge described as a “brutal and cruel” assault and rape of a drunken student five years ago, his lawyer said Thursday.

Kita Ikko, 39, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of rape, one count of sexual assault by penetration and one count of making an obscene film, defense lawyer Adrian Wee told The Associated Press.

Kyodo news agency quoted the Japanese embassy in Singapore as saying that Kita would be the first Japanese to be sentenced to caning in Singapore.

Singapore law provides for the flogging of men under 50 convicted of a variety of offences, including rape, drug trafficking, vandalism and theft. The practice has drawn criticism from domestic authorities, but remains common.

Kita was arrested in December 2019 after the 20-year-old student filed a complaint with police. He first met the victim at a riverside bar and took her to his home where, prosecutors say, he sexually assaulted and raped her. He also recorded the acts on his cellphone and sent it to a friend.

Wee said Kita was on bail until his indictment in May last year and remained in police custody until his guilty plea and sentencing this week.

“The attack you carried out on the victim was brutal and cruel,” said Judge Aedit Abdullah. He noted that the victim was so drunk that she could not walk on her own.

In a ruling handed down on Monday, he said Kita continued to attack her while she was unable to escape and that the ordeal had psychologically traumatized the victim. The sentence will be retroactive to the date of her pretrial detention in May 2023.

In mitigation, Wee had argued that the rape was not planned and said Kita was not a “serial predator”.