SINGAPORE — Angry that his wife had told him to keep quiet after he spoke loudly on the phone as their baby slept, a man held a kitchen knife to her throat and threatened to kill the infant if she left home.

The 24-year-old man was sentenced to three months’ jail after pleading guilty to criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge under the Computer Misuse Act for disclosing his Singpass details over a separate incident. 

Three other similar charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing. 

The name of the man and his wife cannot be published to protect the identity of the couple’s children.

THREATENING WIFE WITH KNIFE 

On May 14 last year, just over two months after the young couple got married, the 21-year-old woman was at home with her husband and their baby girl who was asleep in the bedroom. 

The court heard that as her husband was speaking “very loudly” on the phone, his wife told him to “shut up”.

Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) Chye Jer Yuan said that the man took a knife from the kitchen and put the blunt side of the blade to his wife’s throat, saying that he would cut her.

He later threw the knife to the floor, grabbed her by the throat and pushed her head towards the window grille behind the bed, before leaving the bedroom and returning the knife to the kitchen. 

When his wife said that she wanted to take the baby to her mother-in-law’s house, the man asked her to “try doing that”, APP Chye said. 

The woman then took the same knife from the kitchen and threatened to cut her arm if he refused to let her leave. She cut her arm after her husband said that he did not care.

Seeing this, the man grabbed the knife and threw it on the sofa. He stopped his wife when she tried to take the baby out of the house, saying, “I will kill the baby if you ever leave the house”. 

The couple continued to argue in the kitchen, where the man slapped his wife twice in the face. She then ran to her mother-in-law’s nearby home. 

The man’s mother called the police soon after, reporting that her son had abused his wife and that the man had refused to give their child to the mother. 

Paramedics deployed to the scene made a check on the baby girl and observed that her vitals were normal and that she had no visible injuries, before handing the baby over to the man’s mother. 

The man's wife was also assessed by the paramedics, who found that she had slight swelling on her right temple and slightly below her eye, and four cuts on her forearm. 

She was later escorted to the Institute of Mental Health for an assessment of her mental state before being released.

The man was also assessed to have an abrasion on his finger and arm and was arrested. 

HANDING OVER SINGPASS DETAILS 

In a separate incident a couple of years earlier, the man claimed that he had been approached by a friend named Sam who asked him if he wanted to set up an audio company, APP Chye said.

Sam had told the man that he wanted to register the company under the man’s name, would run the business with his friends and shut down the company within a month.

To do so, Sam required the man to hand over his Singpass user name and password, and would pay him S$1,050. 

As he needed the money, the man gave away his Singpass credentials and one-time password over the phone. Singpass is the gateway to the personal identification data of Singapore residents, allowing them to access e-services.

Sam later used the man’s credentials to open a United Overseas Bank (UOB) corporate account and told him to change the contact number of the account, which he did.

This bank account was active for five days in November 2021 and had a total debited amount of S$175,022 and total credited amount of S$176,183 within this period. The remaining balance of S$1,610 was frozen. 

This was discovered after a 78-year-old retiree made a police report on Nov 17 after receiving a call from DBS bank asking about a transaction of S$19,500 from his bank account. 

The retiree had been advised to file a police report, after he was told over the phone that S$18,900 from four transactions had already been transferred from his account. 

He had spoken with someone who claimed to be a Microsoft representative for around four hours earlier that day, after opening a file of unknown origin that seemingly alerted him to some issue with his computer, prompting him to call a listed contact number. 

During this call, the retiree gave his personal particulars and Singpass password to this person and saw that the cursor on his computer started moving by itself. 

The four transactions totalling S$18,900 were transferred to financial institutions or platforms such as Xfers and Gemini, which were later converted to cryptocurrencies.

Another unsuccessful transfer of S$19,500 to the UOB bank account registered in the man’s name uncovered the man’s disclosure of his Singpass details to Sam. 

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE A 'SERIOUS OFFENCE'

The prosecution sought a sentence of between two and three months' jail for the man’s offences. 

The man’s lawyer, Mr Jeyabal Athavan from RLC Law Corporation, sought a lighter sentence on the basis that the man’s attack on his wife was “completely out of character” and constituted a “momentary lapse of judgement”. 

Mr Jeyabal added that his client had been “enraged” and “provoked” by his wife and placed the blunt end of the knife at her throat in the “heat of the moment”. 

He argued that the man had acted in anger after being “shocked and completely embarrassed” by his wife shouting vulgarities at him while he was on a video call with his brother. 

As for the charge of disclosing his Singpass details, Mr Jeyabal said that his client was unaware that there were any legal ramifications to his actions. 

In sentencing, District Judge Eddy Tham said that domestic violence was a “serious offence” that adversely affects a couple’s children.

The judge accepted that the man’s actions were done in the “spur of the moment”, but said that a deterrent sentence was needed to emphasise the need for spouses to exercise better control during times of conflict and not resort to violence. 

The judge also said that lack of knowledge is “no excuse” for disclosing one's Singpass details, since this matter has been “widely and repeatedly publicised by the authorities” for how such actions could help scammers. 

Anyone who commits criminal intimidation can be jailed for up to two years, receive a fine or both punishments.

For voluntarily cause hurt, an offender can be jailed for up to three years or be fined up to S$5,000, or receive both punishments.

As the man committed these offences against someone with whom he is in a close relationship, he could have received up to twice the maximum punishment for both offences. 

For disclosing his Singpass details, the man could have been jailed for up to three years or been given a fine up to S$10,000, or both.