Cheating husband assaults wife on false suspicion of infidelity; jailed eight weeks
Published on Jan 27, 2015 12:27 PM
Loo Wee Kiat beat his wife up because he thought she was cheating on him, when he was the one having the affair. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
By Ian Poh
SINGAPORE - A jobless man beat his wife up because he thought she was cheating on him, when he was the one having the affair.
Loo Wee Kiat, 36, was sentenced to eight weeks in jail on Tuesday.
He had punched Ms Tan Mei Ying repeatedly in the face and stopped only when he noticed her bleeding from the mouth. Ms Tan, 33, was later diagnosed in the hospital with fractures on both sides of her jaw, and a cut inside her mouth.
The court heard that the assault took place on Jan 7 last year, at their home in West Coast Road - about a week after Ms Tan had moved out because of Loo's infidelity.
Just after midnight, Ms Tan returned to the flat while a female friend waited at the carpark downstairs.
The couple started quarrelling, and Ms Tan tried to leave. But Loo, who had earlier drunk a few glasses of beer, would not allow her to, and started to punch her. Their children woke up because of the argument and began crying when they saw their mother bleeding.
Loo said later that he had wanted to stop her from leaving the flat as he suspected she was having an affair.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Rachel Lee pointed out that this was a case of spousal violence that had left the victim with two fractures.
District Judge Kamala Ponnampalam noted the injuries were to a vulnerable part of Ms Tan's body, and that it was a sustained assault that continued until Loo saw his victim bleeding.
Defence counsel Louis Joseph said Loo now lives with his parents and supports them financially. Loo is a divorcee and has custody of his two children, the lawyer said.
Loo will begin serving his prison term after on Feb 23, after the judge granted his request to celebrate Chinese New Year first. He is out on court bail of $15,000.
For voluntarily causing hurt, he could have been jailed for up to two years and fined up to $5,000.
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