Singapore jails drunk man for threatening to cut sick wife’s throat with fruit peeler
- The 58-year-old butcher also hit her when she was in hospital and threatened a customer with a meat chopper at a coffee shop
- He was sentenced to 12 months’ jail for his offences
In a separate incident, the same man, a butcher, threatened a member of the public with a meat chopper at a Bedok coffee shop.
The 58-year-old man was sentenced to 12 months’ jail after pleading guilty to one charge of carrying an offensive weapon in public and two other charges of criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt to his wife.
Another 10 charges, including four of harassing public service workers, one of affray and five other charges involving hurting, harassing and violating a protection order for his wife, were taken into consideration for sentencing.
TODAY is not naming the man to prevent the identification of one of the victims, who is his wife.
On the night of January 7, 2023, the man’s wife, who is now 60 years old, was resting at home as she was sick.
The man, who was intoxicated and in the living room, shouted that he believed his wife was lying about her illness.
He also blamed her for not “fighting the illness” and “lacking the will to recover”, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Chan Yi Cheng told the court.
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The man then complained about having to do the housework and was unhappy his wife was asleep and not speaking with him.
When the man stopped shouting, he went into the room and switched on the lights before stepping on his wife’s right shoulder.
This caused the woman to shout in pain, and the husband went to the kitchen to grab a fruit peeler before returning to the bedroom.
Pointing the fruit peeler at his wife, he said: “Do you want me to cut your throat?”
He then told her to call the police and to say that her husband wanted to cut her throat and those of her children and her grandson.
Fearing for their safety, the woman pleaded with her husband and apologised to him, asking that they speak the next day as she was sick.
The man then called an ambulance and asked his wife to change, hitting her on her head with his hand twice before the ambulance arrived.
The ambulance conveyed the pair to Changi General Hospital, where the man interrupted the doctors several times during his wife’s consultation.
When the doctor left momentarily, he slapped his wife’s cheek. The wife decided to make a police report.
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Court documents also stated that a staff from the hospital called for police assistance early in the morning on the next day as a couple was having a dispute.
On May 9, 2023 at around 7.30pm (local time), a now 46-year-old woman and 53-year-old man were having dinner at a coffee shop at Block 88 Bedok North Street 4.
Around half an hour later, the woman dining saw the offender approaching their table and arguing with the other diner.
The man told the male diner to follow him to the back of the coffee shop, after which the diner followed him but did not return to the table.
Court documents did not disclose the nature of the relationship, if any, between the two men or the reason the offender confronted the victim.
The man returned to the table with a chopper in his hand and hit a plastic chair a few times, before telling the woman to tell the male diner that he would return the next day to “chop him”, DPP Chan said.
The female diner then went further away to prevent herself from getting hurt, and the man left her alone, before walking around the coffee shop, chopper still in hand.
The police received multiple anonymous calls reporting “a man walking around with a chopper” at the block in Bedok, before arriving and arresting him.
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Court documents stated that the man walked around the coffee shop with a chopper with a 17cm blade.
DPP Chan said that the man claimed he was drunk at the time and was returning from his meat shop.
He said that he brought the metal chopper from his meat shop to confront the diner at the coffee shop.
The man also claimed that he threw his chopper away during the confrontation and the diner fled after an exchange of punches, the court heard.
He then took the chopper from the ground and walked around the coffee shop to find the other man, but could not find him before he was arrested.
Anyone who is convicted of carrying an offensive weapon in public can be jailed for up to three years and be punished with at least six strokes of the cane. As the man is above 50 years old, he cannot be caned.
For voluntarily causing hurt, the man could have been jailed for up to three years, be fined up to S$5,000 (US$3,709), or receive both punishments.
Those who commit criminal intimidation with the threat to cause death or grievous hurt can be jailed for up to 10 years, or fined, or both.
