A British tourist on holiday in Singapore faces a caning if convicted of squeezing or pinching a woman’s bottom in a fashionable nightclub.
Austin Cowburn, 34, a recruitment consultant who works in Qatar, is alleged to have pinched a woman’s buttocks while partying in the upmarket Boat Quay area in the early hours of the morning, London’s Daily Mail newspaper reports.
Cowburn, who apparently works for an engineering and international technical recruitment company, has been charged with outraging the modesty of the woman at the China One club. A Singapore judge set his bail at SGD10,000 (about AUD7500).
He is now staying in a backpacker hostel waiting to appear at a pre-trial hearing on Wednesday.
If convicted of bottom pinching, he could be jailed for two years, fined up to about AUD9000 – or be sentenced to a beating on the buttocks with a rattan cane. The cane, over a metre long, is soaked in water beforehand to make it heavier and more flexible.
Singapore has some harsh penalties, including the death sentence for drug trafficking and murder, but it has loosened up a lot recently when it comes to clubbing and late-night entertainment. Bottom pinching, however, remains a no-no and can be punished by bottom caning.
Corporal punishment of convicted criminals with rattan canes was first introduced to Singapore and Malaysia (both then part of British Malaya) during the British colonial period. The cane is still used in Singapore to punish various crimes, including overstaying a visitors visa by more than 90 days, a measure designed to deter illegal immigrant workers
In an unfortunate juxtaposition, the Daily Mail’s online report of the case was published next to an article about the reminiscences of air hostesses, headlined: “Pinch my bottom again and I’ll shrivel your undercarriage!”
Written by Peter Needham
(Source: eglobaltravelmedia.com.au)
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