Jail, caning for man who shoved bystander and tried to tase another victim

SINGAPORE — He got into fights near nightspots and carried weapons like an extendable baton, a taser and a flick knife in his car.

In September 2016, Kenji Pong Jia Rong and at least 13 other people punched and kicked three others outside St James Power Station as one member of his group felt someone from the opposite camp was arrogant.

Pong, 22, used a traffic cone to hit Ng Tai Rong, one of the three victims, and tried to tase him. His group dispersed only after seeing Ng on the ground and bleeding.

He was not caught for that incident until May last year when he got into another fight, this time at Cuscaden Road near Orchard.

In the predawn hours of May 7 last year, he was captured on video with at least 10 other people stomping on 19-year-old Eugene Ngiam Hai Jun. The bystander who took the video, Ms Charmaine Wee, had tried shouting that the police were coming in an attempt to stop the assault. Pong confronted Ms Wee, saying: "You want (to be beaten as well)? What is your name?"

He shoved Ms Wee and one of his gang members, Chong Kok Ann, 22, then punched her repeatedly.

Ms Wee was one of three bystanders assaulted in the incident, which happened at about 4.30am, but it is not known who attacked the other two – Mr Kelvin Kaw, who fell after his phone was snatched as he was taking a video, and Ms Loh Li Lin, who was trying to call the police when someone asked if she was recording a video and punched her.

On Monday (May 21), Pong pleaded guilty to nine charges and was sentenced to three years' jail, nine strokes of the cane, fined S$5,100 and disqualified from holding a driving licence for a year.

Three charges were for his involvement in three separate street fights, while two were for unlawful possession of a 64.5cm extendable baton, a stun device and a flick knife found during a police roadblock on March 25, 2016, as well as two packets of methamphetamine found in his Yishun flat on Sept 1, 2016.

Ten other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that Pong had fled the scene by the time the police arrived and was only arrested about two weeks later, on May 19, 2017.

Court documents did not state the injuries that the bystanders suffered, but Mr Ngiam had a facial contusion and was given three days' medical leave.

A month after he was arrested for the Cuscaden Road fight, Pong got into another dispute with someone who was waiting for a taxi at St James Power Station.

Pong, who was driving a Malaysian car without a licence while out on bail, sounded his car horn while passing his victim, Mr Chai Rui Peng, 22, who was with friends. Someone in Mr Chai's group shouted a vulgarity in response to the honk and Pong got out of the car with an extendable baton.

He hit Chai's head, causing a 10cm laceration that required eight stitches. He then fled but was arrested two days later.

For each offence of rioting and voluntarily causing hurt with a weapon likely to cause death, he could have been jailed for up to seven years.

Chong, his accomplice in the Cuscaden Road incident, will be dealt with separately while one of his co-accused in the Sept 2016 incident, 22-year-old Leow Zheng Yang, was earlier sentenced to 18 months' jail and three strokes of the cane.