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SINGAPORE
Singapore man, 61, pleads guilty to attacking wife for refusing sex, attempting to sexually assault 81-year-old mother while he was drunk
A view of the Supreme Court along Hight Street in Singapore. — TODAY pic
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Tuesday, 27 Feb 2024 4:57 PM MYT
SINGAPORE, Feb 27 — While drunk, a man decided to use a belt to strangle his 81-year-old mother before attempting to sexually assault her in her public rental flat.
Ignoring her pleas to stop, the man then punched his mother in the face, and then continued his attempts. He stopped only after he became tired due to her attempts to struggle out of his grip.
On another occasion, while also drunk, the man hit his wife after she declined to have sex with him. He had punched her so hard that she fell back and hit a cupboard, fracturing her nose and finger.
In the High Court today, the man, 61, pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated sexual assault with penetration, voluntarily causing grievous hurt and using criminal force against a police officer.
Another nine charges will be taken into consideration during sentencing, some of which are related to a separate incident in 2021, in which the man hurled vulgarities at a police officer while being drunk in a public place.
Among the charges taken into consideration is an outrage of modesty charge for touching his mother inappropriately during his attempted sexual assault.
The prosecution, who described him as a longtime alcoholic and a “menace to society”, said his actions had traumatised his mother and that she showed signs of anger and fear when recounting the incident to a medical social worker.
Prosecutors also cited a long list of past crimes, including for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in 1987.
To this, Judicial Commissioner Christopher Tan called for a preventive detention suitability report to be made.
Preventive detention is a severe punishment imposed only when the court is satisfied that a recalcitrant offender should be locked away to protect the public.
The man, his wife and his mother cannot be named due to a gag order.
Abused his wife
Prior to moving in with his mother, he was living with his wife and their son, who was 23 years old at the time.
On the afternoon of Jan 10, 2021, the man was drunk after drinking at a coffee shop. When he returned home, his wife tried to calm him down after he argued with someone at the coffee shop.
Fearing for her safety, she and her son decided to stay elsewhere for the night and left their home.
However, her son later suggested they returned home and stayed in his room with the door locked.
They then called for police assistance to be escorted home, and police officers monitored the house from outside for a short while before leaving.
The man and his wife were in the living room, while their son was in his own room.
When the police left, the man became angry when he asked his wife for sex, but she declined.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Delicia Tan said he then threatened to “break” her face, uttering a threat along the lines of “I better finish you off”.
Later, the court heard that the man charged towards her suddenly and tried to hit her.
“The victim ran into her son’s room. The accused chased after her and told her not to put on a show. He also told their son not to get involved,” said DPP Tan.
He then punched his wife in the face, causing her to fall backwards and hit a cupboard. His son immediately pushed the accused away, and his wife quickly ran out of the house with blood on her face to call the police.
His wife was hospitalised for seven days as his assault broke her nose, blurred her vision in the right eye and fractured her middle finger, among other injuries.
Moved in with mother
His wife soon obtained a personal protection order and a domestic exclusion order against him. As a result, the man was kicked out of the home around March 2021.
With nowhere else to stay, he turned to his mother, who is physically weak due to old age and uses a walking stick. She took her son in, going against the wishes of her two granddaughters who opposed the move as the man was prone to violence.
She insisted on allowing him to stay with her, explaining to her granddaughters that as the man is her son, and that if she does not take him in, he would not have anywhere else to go.
Court documents said she would sleep on the bed, while the man would sleep on the floor or sofa in the same room. There was a curtain between their sleeping areas.
On April 27, 2021, after eating his dinner, he chatted with his mother in the living room. At this point, he had drunk at least 20 cans of beers throughout the day.
As they were talking at around 11pm, the man suddenly placed his belt around his mother’s neck and tightened it, releasing it only after his mother held on to the strap.
His mother went to bed shortly after, and the man followed her to the same bed and hugged her while lying down, court documents stated.
She told him to return to his sleeping area as this was inappropriate, but he went ahead to hug her tighter, then stripped her clothes away forcefully and then tried to sexually assault her by attempting to penetrate her with his fingers.
The court heard how his mother tried to struggle and told him repeatedly to stop, but the man responded by violently punching her in the face, strangling her as well as by shouting vulgarities at her.
The attempted assault stopped only after the man became tired and fell asleep. Meanwhile, the victim got dressed and sat on a chair near the bed, unable to sleep for the whole night.
The next morning, the man told his mother that he would kill her if she revealed the incident to anyone, said DPP Tan.
Later on, she told her neighbour what happened when the neighbour asked her why her mouth was swollen, the court heard.
Her grandchildren called the police soon after when the neighbour informed them of the incident, and he was arrested.
Separately, on March 24, 2021, the man also spat at a police officer and attempted to kick him several times while in the lock-up at Woodlands Police Divisional Headquarters.
This was after he was found lying on the roadside in Yishun while drunk.
‘Menace to society’
DPP Tan described the man as a “hardened criminal with a violent disposition” noting he has over 50 entries on his criminal records.
Despite his multiple stints in prison, this has not stopped him from committing crimes, noted the prosecution. His past crimes, which date back to 1982, include voluntarily causing hurt, disorderly behaviour and housebreaking.
She called for a preventive detention suitability report, stating he is a “menace to society”.
In his mitigation plea, the man said he had made a “big mistake” and said his actions were because of alcohol.
He also said his mother had arranged his marriage, and blamed his wife for running away on the second day of marriage, which caused him nightmares. He added he had no love for his mother or wife, but did not elaborate.
The case was adjourned to a later date for the man’s sentencing. — TODAY
