Serial offender drunkenly assaulted 7-year-old son, pushed woman in front of oncoming bus

SINGAPORE — Just a month after he shattered two of his neighbours’ windowpanes with his fist over a long-running conflict, a man struck his son and caused the seven-year-old boy’s front teeth to chip.

This did not stop the man from committing more offences, some of them while he was intoxicated.

He threw a clay flower pot from the third floor of a block of flats, before crashing into a pedestrian while riding his e-bike along a pavement several months later.

When a quarrel broke out, he pushed the pedestrian’s friend into the path of an oncoming bus. The driver managed to stop in time and avoid a collision.

On Thursday (March 24), the 29-year-old was sentenced to 32 weeks — or about seven months — of jail time.

While there is no gag order on his identity, his name was removed from court documents to protect his son who is a minor.

He pleaded guilty to two charges of committing a rash act, and one each of breaching a personal protection order, committing mischief and voluntarily causing hurt to a person under 14.

Three other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

FOUND HOUSE SMELLY

Court documents showed that on June 4, 2020, he pointed his middle finger at police officers who were interviewing him about his neighbour. He was drunk at the time.

On Sept 27 that year, he and his wife had another dispute with their neighbour. They all lived along Jalan Bukit Merah at the time.

He then punched the other man’s windowpane and shattered it, before swinging his fist through the gaps of the neighbour’s gate.

The man’s wife was then arrested for allegedly throwing bamboo poles from the corridor.

The following morning, the man went over to his neighbour’s unit in a bid to question him about his wife’s arrest. The neighbour refused to speak to him and closed the door.

Out of frustration, the man punched and shattered a nearby window that he mistakenly believed was the neighbour’s. It belonged to another neighbour who was not involved in the dispute.

About a month later on Oct 21, he went to his former wife’s home where his two children — a seven-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter — lived. The children were home with their maternal grandmother.

He was tipsy at the time, having had four cans of beer. He was also under a personal protection order that restrained him from using family violence against his ex-wife and children.

He found the house to be smelly and asked his son to clean up after their pet cats. He then slapped the boy who began crying.

He also pushed his son and caused him to fall face-down on the floor. This led to two of the boy’s front teeth chipping off and a cut forming on his inner lower lip, which began bleeding.

The man called the police himself after the children’s maternal grandmother confronted him about the assault. He was arrested and later released on bail.

His son had to see a dentist for fillings for the two chipped teeth.

KILLER LITTER

Nine days later, he went to visit a friend along Spooner Road near Singapore General Hospital. He had bailed his friend out soon before this visit, though court documents did not state what this was about.

He then argued with his friend’s sister-in-law before becoming aggressive. He abruptly took a clay flowerpot from a neighbouring unit and threw it to the ground floor from the third floor.

It did not hit anyone and shattered upon impact.

Then, on March 9 last year, he drank numerous cans of beer at a void deck of a public housing block before heading home on his e-bike. While riding along a pavement on Telok Blangah Rise, he collided with a pedestrian who was walking towards a bus stop with a 47-year-old woman.

A dispute broke out and he hurled vulgarities at them.

When the two women walked away, he overheard them saying they should not talk to him as he appeared to be drunk. He approached them and angrily asked if they were Malaysians.

They did not respond and he suddenly pushed the 47-year-old woman on her shoulder, causing her to step off the pavement and onto the road in the path of a bus approaching the bus stop.

The bus driver managed to stop. The two women boarded the bus to avoid a confrontation, while the driver asked the accused why he had pushed the victim onto the road.

They began quarrelling and shouting, prompting the bus driver to alert his supervisors who called the police. The man left the scene before the police arrived, and was later identified.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Norine Tan told the court that he had previously committed multiple offences.

This included being jailed five times from 2010 to 2016 for crimes such as carrying offensive weapons in public, using or inhaling an intoxicating substance, and joining an unlawful assembly while armed with a deadly weapon.

For voluntarily causing hurt to a victim under 14, he could have been jailed for up to six years or fined up to S$10,000, or both.

For committing a rash act endangering life or human safety, he could have been jailed for up to six months or fined up to S$2,500, or both.