Woman jailed for attacking husband’s 18-year-old employee with a beer bottle
Chen was diagnosed with adjustment disorder with suicidal thoughts.
Jason Fan
Suspecting that her husband was cheating on her with an 18-year-old employee, a 39-year-old woman attacked the teenager with a beer bottle, and tried to stab her with the shards.
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Ng Jia Hui, 18, managed to block the attack but suffered lacerations in the process.
Chen Xiaqin, 40, who is a Chinese national, was jailed for seven months on Nov. 28, after pleading guilty to one count of causing hurt to the teenager with a weapon.
The victim was attacked from behind with a glass beer bottle
The incident took place on May 10, 2018, at Hook On Steamboat restaurant in Geylang.
Chen, her husband and his employees were celebrating his birthday. But the couple argued, and her husband left the restaurant shortly after.
Chen proceeded to drink several bottles of beer. At around 7.30pm, she approached the 18-year-old victim from behind.
She pulled her hair twice and used a glass beer bottle to hit Ng on the back of her head. The bottle shattered, and the two women began to struggle.
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Incident left scars
Chen then tried to stab the victim with the broken bottle, but Ng blocked the attack with her left forearm, getting cut in the process.
The other employees soon intervened, and separate the two women.
The victim was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for treatment, where she was found to have lacerations on her forearm and scalp.
While her wounds have since healed, they have left scars. The incident was captured on CCTV.
Chen wanted to prevent her husband from “being stolen”
According to
CNA, Chen committed the offence to prevent her husband from “being stolen”, and to keep the family together.
Her defence lawyer Dhanwant Singh argued that she had reacted uncharacteristically on the spur of the moment, due to “fear and anger”.
Yahoo News reported that Chen felt depressed and suicidal, and had tried to cut herself or walk into the sea, but was scared.
She was diagnosed with adjustment disorder with suicidal thoughts, according to a Changi General Hospital report.
For voluntarily causing hurt with a weapon, Chen could have been jailed up to seven years, fined, or both.
