Singapore Polytechnic investigating after student accused of rape in viral tweets

Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is investigating a student who was accused of sexual assault in a string of tweets, the school said in a statement today (June 11).

The tweets, posted by the student's supposed ex-girlfriend on June 7, alleged that he had raped her in a chalet in March last year.

Prior to the incident, the woman, who has not been named to protect her identity, had broken up with him after discovering hundreds of lewd photos stored in his phone.

Some of the images appeared to have been taken without the subject's consent, while others were doctored to make the women appear nude, she said.

She also claimed that he received a six-month suspension and counselling after she had reported the images to the school.

The purpose of her posts was to warn other women about him and find out if anyone else had a similar experience, she said, attaching screenshots of the man's Instagram and Twitter accounts in her tweet.

Her story soon gained traction online, garnering over 3,600 retweets and a number of supportive replies from netizens.

Several of them also shared email templates, urging members of the public to write to SP and call for the man to be punished.

In its statement, SP said that it was alerted to the accusations against its student on June 7 and confirmed that it was investigating the matter.

SP also clarified that the student's six-month suspension was for "a separate incident which occurred in 2019" and not in relation to the alleged sexual assault. 

The school has since reached out to the woman, who is an alumna, to offer support and counselling.

SP did not comment when asked if the police were involved in the case. AsiaOne has contacted the police for information. 

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