Petition started for harsher sentence for convicted sexual predator Joshua Robinson

Screengrab of the Change.org petition page
Screengrab of the Change.org petition page

Last week, an American MMA instructor in Singapore was sentenced to four years’ jail for sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls and possessing child pornography. Joshua Robinson was caught in June 2015 and subsequently pleaded guilty to nine charges — three for sexual assault, five for making and possessing obscene films and one for showing one such film to a six-year-old girl.

At his apartment raid, police officers discovered 5,902 obscene films, including 321 child pornography ones. According to Channel NewsAsia, this is reportedly the biggest haul of child pornography seized from an individual in Singapore.

The 39-year-old, who has lived in Singapore for about six years, could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined for each charge of sexually assaulting a minor. For the possession of obscene films, he could have been jailed up to six months or fined at least $500 for each film, up to $20,000.

At the news of Robinson’s four-year jail sentence, people were outraged. The father of the six-year-old girl whom Robinson showed the sexually explicit video to spoke out on a since-deleted social media post, expressing his shock and disappointment with the verdict that he felt was unjust.

Now, an online Change.org petition has surfaced. With an impassioned plea, the petition — which was reportedly started by a close friend of the six-year-old’s family — calls for a harsher sentence for Robinson. As of writing, since its launch on Mar 5, the petition has garnered 3,335 supporters.



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