May 7, 2010
10 years for assault
<!-- by line --> By Elena Chong
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AN ALCOHOLIC who bashed a construction worker with a long wooden pole for no apparent reason was sentenced to 10 years' preventive detention on Friday. Madialagan Munusamy, 45, originally accused of murder, was also ordered to be given 12 strokes of the cane for causing grievous hurt to Mr Cong Cheng Li, 44, at Block 301 Woodlands Street 31 on March 8 last year. The victim, a Chinese national, died three days later of severe head injury. A district court heard that Madialagan, unemployed, had been on a drinking binge before the attack.
He was lying down at the void deck of the block at about 6pm that day when he was awakened by a group of men talking loudly nearbyHe told them to leave but they continued talking loudly. A scuffle broke out and Madialagan injured himself when the beer bottle he was carrying broke. He called his wife at about 7pm and claimed that some men had hurled vulgarities at him and he was going to retaliate. His wife told him not to but he refused to heed her.
The court heard that he pulled out a wooden pole from a scaffolding structure and hit Mr Cong on the head. He also tried to hit a group of Bangladeshis who ran away.He was arrested at home two days later. Government psychiatrists found that he had alcohol dependence syndrome, and at the time of the offence, alcoholic intoxication with hallucinations. Madialagan, who has been convicted of various offences since he was 18, could have been given up to 20 years' preventive detention with no remission for good behaviour.
