Ex-actor Huang Yiliang begins 10-month jail term after High Court dismisses appeal over assault conviction

SINGAPORE — An ex-Mediacorp actor began serving a 10-month jail sentence on Friday (Feb 4), after the High Court threw out his appeal against his conviction and sentence in January last year for assaulting an employee.

Former Channel 8 actor Ng Aik Leong, better known as Huang Yiliang, appeared dazed as he sat in the dock, and took a few minutes to respond when Justice Aedit Abdullah asked if he was ready to begin serving his sentence immediately, or if he needed more time.

Instead of giving his response, Ng, 60, apologised in Mandarin through a court interpreter.

“Sorry. I’m very sorry, Your Honour,” he said.

It was only when the question was repeated to him that Ng responded that he was prepared to “start serving today”.

Justice Abdullah said at the conclusion of the hearing that he was “not persuaded” by the arguments put forward to overturn Ng’s conviction and upheld the sentence previously imposed on the former actor.

Ng was given the sentence on Feb 26 last year after a five-day trial in which he conducted his own defence.

He was convicted last January of voluntarily causing hurt by a dangerous weapon for assaulting a Bangladeshi worker, Mr Jahidul, at the Singapore Islamic Hub in 2018.

He was also ordered to pay the victim S$3,300 in compensation for his salary as well as the pain and suffering caused.

During the trial, a district court heard that Ng had hit Mr Jahidul on the head and scratched his abdomen twice with a metal scraper on Dec 11, 2018. He had hired the worker in October that year.

On Friday, his defence lawyer, Mr Chung Ting Fai of the Chung Ting Fai & Co law firm, sought to have his client’s conviction set aside or, failing that, to have his sentence reduced to six months’ imprisonment.

Mr Chung said that the main thrust of the appeal was that Mr Jahidul was not to be believed, and that the trial judge, District Judge John Ng, had “not given enough weight” to Ng’s defence.

As such, the lawyer said Ng wanted to reiterate four points that he had raised during the trial.

The first was that Ng claimed Mr Jahidul had given consent to be beaten as a “form of teaching” so that he could learn from his mistakes.

Second, Ng claimed that he had been “set up” by Mr Jahidul after Ng refused to increase his pay.

Third, Ng claimed that he “knew how to, and did only use” fake punches, and that Mr Jahidul had exaggerated his injuries.

Mr Chung said: “There was no contact with the victim at all. If he had really used the scraper (to hit Mr Jahidul), the victim’s injuries would have been worse.”

And finally, Ng claimed that Mr Jahidul had “stabbed himself when (the) investigation officer asked him to retrieve the weapon”, Mr Chung added.

The lawyer argued that District Judge Ng had erred in several areas, including failing to “appreciate the materials placed before him”.

He also said that there had been no witness to the attack and the only testimony was that of Mr Jahidul, which was “accepted without question”.

The trial judge did not consider that if Mr Jahidul was “genuinely under attack”, he would not have sufficient time to fish out his mobile phone and film the attack, the lawyer pointed out.

The worker said during the trial that he was so fearful of his boss, he started recording Ng’s threatening words to him in secret.

Three of these recordings were played in court.

“He must have (had) time to react, and this supports the appellant’s assertion the assault was staged,” Mr Chung said.

Separately, the defence lawyer sought to disclose video footage that purportedly showed Ng faking his punches and the victim pretending to be injured, but this bid was dismissed by Justice Abdullah.

In response, the prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Chong Kee En, said that there was a “plethora of evidence” to support Mr Jahidul’s testimony.

Touching on Ng’s claim that he had been set up, DPP Chong said that Ng could not show during the trial why Mr Jahidul would want to set him up.

And on the victim consenting to be beaten up, DPP Chong said that aside from the “absurdity” of the idea, Ng’s account was “rife with contradictions”.

For instance, Ng previously claimed that he had to hit the victim in order to teach him how to learn. Yet, at the same time, he also claimed that he had faked his own punches and so, there was no real contact.

The prosecution said that the conviction recorded by the District Judge Ng was “amply supported by the evidence, and that sentence imposed was not excessive, much less manifestly so”.

“There is no basis in law or fact for the appellant’s unmeritorious criminal motion... the respondent urges this Honourable Court to dismiss the criminal motion and to uphold the conviction and sentence.”