[medicheng]

Women allegedly molested at year-end Orchard Rd party
By Maiyuyi and Yvonne Cheong, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE : The New Year's Eve party along Orchard Road has turned into a nightmare for some female partygoers who have turned to blogs to say they were molested by men who operated in groups.

The women say the molesters used party foam sprays to temporarily blind their victims first.

Police say they received 11 reports of molest alleging the acts took place along Orchard Road that night.

Since then, the police have made eight arrests and confirmed that some used such tactics.

"The first guy sprayed foam spray into my eyes so I was blinded. I was coughing because I sucked the foam in as well. I was so shocked when a second guy grabbed my left breast and a third guy grabbed my right breast," said one victim, an undergraduate.

"A fourth guy actually reached down to my privates and grabbed it as well. It was so horrible and I wanted to cry. But I didn't want them to see I was going to cry so I just screamed and cursed at one of the guys who I saw was running away," she said.

Another victim says foam sprays were used on her as well.

One type of spray used by the molesters, called a ribbon or string spray, can target victims several metres away, catching them by surprise.

Outraged bloggers have started an online petition to ask for aerosol sprays to be banned.

But not all molesters use sprays to outrage their victims' modesty.

"One of them just came up and lifted my skirt. Then another person, I assume it's his friend, uses his handphone to take a video of me under my skirt. I was terrified. I tried to run away but it was a big group. There were 7 or 8 of them so I couldn't do anything about it," said another victim.

She said at least 10 of her girl friends were similarly violated after they were sprayed with foam but most did not make a police report.

"Even if I were to see the same group of men, I wouldn't recognise them," said a third victim.

One of the victims was grateful when some passersby yelled at her molesters.

She said, "Somebody from a distance actually shouted at them, and said 'Hey you, I'm calling the police.' So the men ran away but they were cheering because of what they'd done to me."

Bloggers Channel NewsAsia spoke to say there are hundreds of responses from girls and women at blog sites who say they were molested at the event or at previous countdown parties.

Fellow bloggers who were molested at the Millenium party five years ago are telling their stories because they hope something can be done.

All three victims are alleging that their attackers are foreign nationals.

Police say they have received reports against suspects of various races.

- CNA /ls/ct

this is really too much sia....