53-year-old woman fined S$9,000 for harassing ex-lover, his wife

SINGAPORE — A woman was fined S$9,000 on Wednesday (Feb 5) for harassing her former lover and his wife, going so far as to write posts on Facebook accusing them both of breaching the codes of conduct of their employers. 

In her Facebook posts, 53-year-old Louisa Tan-Kang Sung Choo accused her ex-lover, a 46-year-old man, of abusing his status as an executive committee member of a religious society and violating the code of ethics as an employee of a big firm in Singapore. She also accused him of uploading a series of lewd posts online.

Then, she wrote on the social media platform a post alleging that her former lover’s wife had breached the code of conduct at her place of employment. 

She claimed that she had been in touch with the woman's employer, and that the company had assured her that it was taking action against her ex-lover’s wife.

Tan-Kang was fined S$9,000 after pleading guilty to six charges under the Protection from Harassment Act. Five other similar charges were taken into account during sentencing.

HOW IT BEGAN

The court heard that the man became acquainted with Tan-Kang at work sometime in 2015 or 2016 and they got into a relationship for a few months in 2016.

After the relationship ended, she began to harass the man and he filed seven police reports between July 2016 and June 2018.

He later secured a protection order against Tan-Kang on July 17, 2018, which prohibited her from communicating with him or publishing or making any threatening, abusive or insulting communication on any platform.

Still, the harassment continued.

On July 18, the day the protection order was served, she sent him a phone text message accusing him of circulating an obscene video of himself online under the pseudonym "fathubby88".

On Sept 3, she sent another message to him, alleging that he had acted wrongfully and lied to the authorities when he made the application for the protection order.

About three weeks later, she sent another message, again accusing him of circulating obscene content online. She also alleged that he had threatened her to stop any ongoing investigations against him.

On April 28 last year, Tan-Kang took her harassment to Facebook, publishing a post in which she said that he had committed “beast deeds” and had lied to the police and the court to avoid apprehension.

A day later, she followed up with another Facebook post containing five screenshots showing a number of lewd messages posted online by one "fathubby", which she implied had been sent by her ex-lover.

In the Facebook post, she also claimed that she had alerted the Taoist Federation about the man’s misdeeds through Singapore's prime minister and the ministers for law, education and national development.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Zhi Hao said that Tan-Kang’s post made a number of unsubstantiated allegations that her ex-lover had “abused his status”.

On July 30, 2018, Tan-Kang again took to Facebook, this time naming her ex-lover’s wife and the company that employed her.

In the post, Tan-Kang alleged that the woman had breached the code of conduct at her place of employment.

Tan-Kang also claimed that the woman had threatened her from coming forward as a whistleblower to help in investigations.

For each of her charges of failing to comply with the protection order that her ex-lover had secured, she could have been jailed up to six months, fined up to S$5,000, or both.

For causing distress to the woman, Tan-Kang could have been fined up to S$5,000.