Monica Baey, an undergraduate student from the National University of Singapore (NUS) took to her Instagram account on 18 April to call out the school for trying to protect the man who had filmed her in the shower.
According to her posts, Ms Baey had been filmed in the shower by male student. She made a police report immediately following the incident and the perpetrator was identified, along with CCTV and video evidence of him committing the act.
Unfortunately, following an investigation, the man in question was said to be only slapped with a 12-month conditional warning. She added that he will only be punished if he re-offends in the next 12 months.
Ms Baey furiously pointed out that this isn’t the first incident of its kind to happen at NUS, noting that many other women have fallen victim to being filmed in the shower.
When Ms Baey tried to appeal for a heavier sentence with the police, she was told by the investigation officer that that we should have to ‘just accept the outcome’. She added that the officer then said, “If you want real consequences or more action to be taken, go to NUS and push for action”.
Ms Baey said she did approached NUS to push for a stronger punishment from the school but the only thing they did was to forward her a letter of apology from the perpetrator.
The letter which Ms Baey posted on her instagram, wrote:
“I am writing this letter to formally apologise for my vile and inappropriate action that happened in Eusoff hall, on the final week of November and being on heavy alcoholic influence is no excuse at all. I am extremely ashamed of what I have done and I am so sorry to have traumatised you in such a manner, nobody should ever have to go through such a traumatic experience. I want to assure you that this will never happen to anyone else again, and I know actions speak louder than words. This incident has taught me an invaluable lesson and I will strive to be the best version of myself from here on. Of course I hope to seek your forgiveness, but I understand that I am in no position to ask for anything and you have no obligation to even give me any form of closure. But I still want you to know that I am really sorry to have committed such an offence. I will be serving the sanctions mete out by the university while bearing in mind to only improve as a person from here.”
Responding to the letter content, Ms Baey sarcastically said, “Yup, I feel so much better. Thank you.”
In her stories, Ms Baey also shared a screenshot of a direct message she had received on Instagram from a person who said that the perpetrator’s parents are powerful people and that it might not be wise for her to anger them for fear of her future. Ms Baey clapped back that she was “preoccupied fearing for the future of other potential victims” and that she found it unbelievable that people are still trying to silence victims in 2019.
