Another day, another National University of Singapore pervert case. After Dr. Jeremy Fernando was fired from Tembusu College, courts heard the case of 20-year-old Goh An Soon who stole items from the NUS hostel–women’s underwear included for perverted purposes.
Who is Goh An Soon?
According to a report from Asia One, Goh An Soon was not yet a student at NUS when he committed the crimes. He trespassed onto the campus and went to the hostel area eight times over the course of six weeks to steal items from the laundry.
He pleaded guilty on Monday, November 9, to one count each of misappropriating the lingerie and trespassing.
How did Goh An Soon thieve the underwear?
The same report said that whenever Goh was overcome with the urge to steal women’s underwear, he would go to the dormitory at King Edward VII Hall in Kent Ridge Road. There, he would try to spy the laundry area and open places to see if there was any laundry set out or hanging on the lines. He also checked washing machines that were left unattended. The incidents mentioned in court happened between Dec 19, 2018, and Feb 1 last year.
Goh would then, “”He claimed that he would then take the undergarments to pantry rooms in neighbouring blocks of the campus to look at them up close, and that he left the undergarments behind in these rooms thereafter.” said the prosecutor in the case.
A thief through and through
While his thievery of women’s undergarments stood out as a detail in this case, he also took other items from the victims. His haul on Jaunary 16, 2019 was a total of five laundry bags that contained a towel, men’s socks, and men’s underwear. In February of the same year he stole a wallet that had bank cards and a USB drive.
Almost all these items have since been recovered, except for the women’s underwear.
How was Goh An Soon caught?
According to the same report, a staff hall member in NUS noticed Goh doing suspicious activity in the hall on February 1 last year. It was 6:00 in the evening, and the employee called for security guards after he confronted Goh.
The police were called a little over an hour after. He was slated for sentencing on December 21, and could be jailed for two years for his offenses.
Previous NUS cases of perverts
While this case was mild compared to previous ones, the recent firing of Dr. Jeremy Fernando just highlights the frequency of pervert-related cases when it comes to NUS.
Ever since Monica Baey revealed how the university would handle peeping tom cases that even recorded and disseminated naked videos and photos, there had been improvements on handling cases inside the campus–but offenders before the reforms were usually given punishments that did no affect their school records and did not require them to serve any jail time.
What’s more, a lot of the peeping toms and perverts who were students were given the chance to pay their victims reparations and have their sentences lightened.
