An online petition has been started on Charge.org, asking for a harsher sentence for convicted paedophile Joshua Robinson.
The 39-year-old American mixed martial arts (MMA) instructor was found guilty on Thursday (March 2) for having sex with underage girls and possessing child pornography.
He was sentenced to four years imprisonment by district judge Crystal Ong who said “the law must come down hard on such individuals so as to specifically deter them from re-offending and also to deter others from committing such acts against vulnerable young persons.”
The petition was started by a Ms Sarah Woon, who claims she is a close family friend of a 6-year-old girl whom Robinson had shown an explicit video while she was waiting for her father who was training at the gym.
Ms Woon wrote in the petition: “As a parent and an early childhood educator advocating for the voiceless in our country (and children everywhere, with the fact that upon release this paedophile could be anywhere around the world, abusing his mixed martial arts trainer’s credentials), I find this unacceptable and absolutely intolerable.
“Unfortunately, the 6-year-old in this traumatic case is a daughter of a close friend and it absolutely breaks my heart and those of all our friends and family.”
Ms Woon started the petition on Sunday and as of Monday morning, it had garnered over 1,910 supporters.
Among a number of those who have shared the petition on Facebook is renowned Thai mixed martial artist and entrepreneur Chatri Sityodtong.
He shared the link on his Facebook page on Monday, calling for martial artists to “stand up together against evil”.
The petition comes after numerous comments were posted on news reports and social media about the relatively lenient sentence for Robinson.
In an interview with TODAY, the dad of the 6-year-old girl who was shown porn by Robinson said he was outraged by the man’s four-year jail sentence.
He took to social media to express his anger: “They lock drug abusers up for much longer than four years…but a child sexual abuser? Just a slap on the wrist!”
The father said in the interview that Robinson is well-known in the martial arts industry here and even taught in schools.
In fact, it has also been revealed in The Indepedent that Robinson had been a “poster boy” once for Contact Singapore, a campaign to attract global talent to work in Singapore.
Here’s a video of Robinson being featured in the video:
