Man slashes wife with cleaver, assaults and spits on workers at SGH and IMH

SINGAPORE — Soon after choking his wife, physically abusing her, slashing her arm with a cleaver and threatening to kill her, Wee Guo Qiang took out his aggression on several medical personnel.

He also spat at hospital workers and made racist and religiously charged remarks at a nurse, who was taking his vital signs while he was warded at Singapore General Hospital (SGH).

The 26-year-old Singaporean was jailed for one year, seven months and two weeks on Monday (June 20). This was backdated to June last year when he was remanded.

He pleaded guilty to seven charges, including causing hurt to his wife with a dangerous weapon, criminal intimidation and causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty.

District Judge Tan Jen Tse considered another 13 similar charges for sentencing purposes.

The court heard that Wee, who was married to a 34-year-old woman from China, grew intoxicated in the wee hours of Dec 28 in 2020.

He then woke up his wife in bed by hugging her. When she told him that he reeked of alcohol and he should not disturb her, he sat on the lower part of her body and bit her shoulder, refusing to release her.

He then choked her with both hands, causing her to almost lose consciousness. He also threatened to strangle her to death, before eventually releasing his grip and saying that he would kill her.

She pleaded with him not to because she has a child. It is not clear if the child is from their marriage.

Wee retrieved an electrical kettle from the living room and poured warm water over her head, then threw the kettle at her forehead.

He proceeded to grab her hair and hit her head against a cupboard mirror repeatedly. The mirror later cracked from the impact.

Not satisfied, Wee took a cleaver from the kitchen, pointed it at his wife and threatened to chop her to death. He then slashed her upper left arm with the weapon.

She could not retaliate because her limbs had gone numb after the choking earlier in bed.

In a bid to stop him, she claimed that she suspected she was pregnant. This prompted him to stop his attack and call for an ambulance.

She was hospitalised at Changi General Hospital for two days and given several more days of hospitalisation leave.

Wee was then charged and released on court-imposed bail.

KICKED AND BIT HOSPITAL WORKERS

However, on May 5 last year, he grew aggressive when warded at SGH. Court documents did not state why he was hospitalised.

A Certis Cisco auxiliary police officer, along with some colleagues and an SGH staff member, tried to tie his legs to prevent him from further kicking a nurse who was checking on his intravenous drip.

Wee threatened to complain about them on social media and said that they would be "done for" if he did so. He also verbally abused them with vulgarities and threatened to sue them, before kicking the auxiliary policeman on his chest.

A few hours later, an assistant nurse clinician was taking Wee’s vital signs. He then sat up and bit the restraint on his hand.

When the nurse tried to stop him, he started shouting more vulgarities and challenged the victim to stop him.

The male nurse told Wee that it was against his religion, as a Muslim, to hit people. Wee responded by shouting religiously and racially offensive comments, adding: “I’m going to find you outside and I am going to kill you."

He also held onto the victim’s shirt and tried to bite his hand.

The following day, he punched another nurse on her face while she was preparing a new restraint for him. He also verbally abused her.

SPAT ON ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, PSYCHIATRIST

Two days later, Wee was taken to Sengkang General Hospital from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for medical treatment due to a drug overdose.

Once again, he turned aggressive after auxiliary police officers told him that they could not release him from his restraints.

He spat a mouthful of water at one of the officers and scolded him with phrases such as “karma will get you” and “you will be hit by a car”.

He was then taken back to IMH’s emergency services department.

There, he shouted and threatened some of the hospital workers, saying that after he was discharged, he would go back to IMH with a knife and slash all of them. He also struggled to get out of his restraints and tried to spit at them.

He was eventually taken to a room where a psychiatrist assessed his condition and ordered that he be given an injection to calm him down.

When she returned a few hours later to re-interview him, he spat at her twice.

The next day, an IMH psychologist made a police report stating that Wee had threatened to kill a few hospital employees upon his release, and to take an auxiliary officer’s gun and shoot himself. He had also asked the psychologist if she wanted to get slashed.

Another psychiatrist filed a separate report, stating that he had “grave concerns” about the safety of all IMH employees.

The following day, a senior IMH nurse saw Wee peeping at the female patients’ section and shouting loudly.

The male nurse told him to behave, which led Wee to start challenging and asking the nurse to put diapers on him because he was a four-year-old child. Wee then punched the nurse on the cheek before auxiliary police officers and the nurse pinned him to the ground.

He also threatened to kill the nurse and alleged that he had a “knife inside a car”.