57-year-old man arrested for masturbating and urinating in front of HDB residents house in Hougang, has been harassing them since 2017

On July 5 2020, a police report was made at 11.35am regarding a 57-year-old man who had allegedly performed an obscene act at the lift lobby of a block along Hougang Street 51. Shortly after the police report was made, the man left the location.

Officers from Ang Mo Kio Police Division established the identity of the man and arrested him on Thursday, July 16 2020 at 11.30am.

The man is said to be charged in court for obscene acts in a public place. If found guilty, he faces a jail term of up to three months, a fine, or both.

According to a Facebook post that was shared on Wednesday, July 15 2020 by the affected resident, the harassment has been ongoing since December 2017.

The man would ring their doorbell multiple times, slot letters under their door and even sleep right outside their doorstep. She claimed that despite making several police calls every night, the police will simply just chase him away.

It was said that the man did this in a repetitive cycle and would appear more than 2 times a day.

The resident also installed a CCTV system worth S$500, which revealed footages of the man slipping letters under their door and committing obscene acts such as urinating on their potted plants and masturbating.

She also mentioned that over the years, her family has made multiple police reports regarding the issue, but they were told that these acts of harassment are non-arrestable and that they had to go to the state court to apply for a magistrate’s complaint to get an Investigation Officer. The family duly did so.

He was later convicted and punished with 7 weeks and 5 days of imprisonment, as well as admitted into the Institute of Mental Health.

However, in February 2018, the harassment started again and the harasser managed to continue sending the family letters from Changi Prison’s Letterhead.

When he was eventually released, he continued to sleep outside their door and commit more obscene acts.

The resident lamented that 4 different Investigation Officers had been re-assigned to them in the span of 3 years and even so, they still continued to be harassed.

She also commented saying that “this whole situation is implying that staying in a HDB is not safe and if such a situation happens, we just have to suck it up and deal with it on our own, unlike others who can afford their own security in a condominium. With up to 80% of Singapore’s population living in HDB flats, are we all expected to live with such dangerous circumstances?”