Yahoo Finance Auxiliary police officer who assaulted ex-girlfriend while at work jailed
SINGAPORE — An auxiliary police officer who assaulted his ex-girlfriend while they were at work at a Police Coast Guard base was jailed for six weeks on Thursday (14 January).
The 27-year-old Malaysian man had claimed trial to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt and two counts of criminal intimidation against his ex-girlfriend, who was his supervisor. He was found guilty of all charges.
Both parties cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity.
The victim, who was in her 20s at the time of the offence, testified during the trial that the man was a “controlling person who tended to blame her for things that went wrong in their relationship”. The man became violent towards the victim shortly into the relationship. He would occasionally beat her then bring her to a clinic for medication.
“As they were in a relationship, (the victim) accepted this status quo, thinking that the accused would change as a person,” the prosecution said in court documents.
The two had began dating in July 2018 but the relationship ended a few months later, after the two sought a horoscope reading, which showed that their compatibility for marriage was not promising.
On 29 November 2018, the couple was on an afternoon shift at Police Coast Guard Brani Base when the man demanded that his ex-girlfriend met him in the staff pantry where he expressed unhappiness over the end of their relationship. The man punched her several times in the head, face, and torso, and kicked her several times in the shins and thighs, despite her cries for him to stop.
Both were armed and in uniform. During the altercation, the man took the victim’s knife, which had fallen, and threw it at her. After the incident, the man demanded that the victim write down what she had done wrong in a book.
They returned to work, but the man later called her at night, upset that she had not written out her mistakes in sufficient details to his liking. He then said, “I am going to kill you now. That’s confirmed. Then, what are you going to do? Eh?”, and added a vulgarity.
After the victim left work after midnight, the man threatened over the phone to disseminate her nude photographs online. The victim lodged a police report after this incident.
During his defence, the man claimed that the victim had held onto his right hand and begged him not to leave her while they were in the pantry. Irritated by the woman’s claims that he was treating her like a dog, the man pushed her right shoulder, causing her face to hit a metal locker.
Still, the woman allegedly came towards him and “locked” his ankle with her legs in order to prevent him from leaving. The man claimed he then used his leg to push her ankle away.
As for the threat of killing her, the man said it was something that people normally said to each other in Malaysia and that he had not intended to kill the woman.
He also claimed that the alleged vulgar word meant “lotus” and was used as a term of endearment on his ex-girlfriend. He denied speaking to the woman after work and taking any nude photographs of the woman.
Submitting for a 10-week jail term, Deputy Public Prosecutor Lu Yiwei said that the man’s culpability was “relatively high” as he was an auxiliary police officer uniform and in possession of arms who had offended while in the Police Coast Guard premises.
The man’s lawyer, Lim Tean, told the court that his client had come to Singapore to work 10 years ago. If a jail term was imposed on the man, he would lose his job and his family in Johor who depended on his income would suffer, said the lawyer.
The lawyer said the incident rose from a “short and ill-fated relationship” and sought a fine for his client.
The man has filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence.
Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore
Other Singapore stories:
Man who fractured mother's ribs to get PIN jailed over 5 years
No supply-chain disruptions despite Malaysia's new MCO measures: Chan Chun Sing
Eng’s Heritage at Northpoint suspended after 26 people had food poisoning
COVID-19: Senior citizens' vaccination to begin this month, four centres set up
SAF officer delayed evacuating CFC Dave Lee despite NSF's heat injury symptoms: Coroner's court
