Former banker sentenced to 6 months’ jail for punching waitress who refused to go home with him

SINGAPORE — He pestered a waitress to go home with him and when she refused, a 36-year-old former banker punched her multiple times and fractured her nose.

When she begged him to stop, a drunk Samson Tanuwidjaja apparently replied: “You think I am joking with you? Of all the girls I ask to go home with me, they go home with me. Why you don’t go home with me?”

He continued punching Ms Tessie Verterra Chen until she passed out.

Tanuwidjaja, a Singapore permanent resident, was sentenced to six months’ jail on Wednesday (March 28) for his attack on the morning of Oct 28, 2015. He had been found guilty in November of voluntarily causing grievous hurt following a six-day trial. District Judge Sarah Tan also ordered him to pay S$635.75 as compensation to the victim.

Tanuwidjaja will be appealing against his conviction.

Ms Chen worked at a bar and restaurant in Orchard Towers and Tanuwidjaja had ordered drinks from her before the incident. She testified during the trial that Tanuwidjaja had pestered her to go home with him and even waited outside the restaurant and bar for her.

After she ended work for the day, he followed her to the area near the Royal Thai Embassy and asked her again to go home with him.

Angered after Ms Chen rejected him again, she said he pushed her onto the bushes and punched her, causing her to sustain injuries including a fractured nose, cuts on her body and bruises on her forehead.

Tanuwidjaja disputed Ms Chen’s account and claimed that she had “somehow” fallen face-down into the bushes. He claimed Ms Chen had charged towards him with what appeared to be a sharp knife-like object and he had pushed her before running away.

Seeking a jail sentence of at least 15 months, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelly Ho said that the attack was motivated by malice and was “vicious and sustained”.

Tanuwidjaja’s brutal assault of Ms Chen after being spurned was “unbecoming and atrocious”, she added.

The defence also “repeatedly cast aspersions “ on Ms Chen and two other female witnesses who were her colleagues, said DPP Ho.

“The defence alleged that Ms Chen was working as a hostess and had ‘flirted with him including patting him on his thigh and arm’,” she said.

Defence lawyer Shashi Nathan called for a jail sentence of four months and said Tanuwidjaja had “no premeditated intention” to harm Ms Chen.

“Upon Ms Chen’s rejection, Tanuwidjaja lost his good judgement and unthinkingly carried out his offending conduct,” said Mr Nathan, who added that his client’s previous brushes with the law were not violence-related.

For voluntarily causing grievous hurt, Tanuwidjaja could have been sentenced to 10 years’ jail, with a fine and/or caning.

Tanuwidjaja is out on bail of S$30,000.