SINGAPORE: Two women and one man filmed fighting at a getai concert near Paya Lebar Road last year were each fined S$1,000 after pleading guilty to one count of affray on Friday (Apr 21).
Ong Geok Sang, 71, Neo Kway Chuan, 70, and Neo’s wife Long Kai Buay, 66, were at tentage area set up along Arumugam Road to watch a concert for the Hungry Ghost festival, according to court documents.
The three Singaporeans had gotten into an altercation after Ong tried to reserve seats for her friends at the event.
WHAT HAPPENED
On Aug 10, last year, at around 5.30pm, Ong had placed some slips of paper on plastic chairs to reserve seats for her friends, but Neo removed the paper, taking two seats for himself and his wife, Long.
Seeing his actions, Ong confronted Neo and the two argued. Neo told Ong that she should not be hogging seats but Ong scolded the couple for taking her reserved seats, said State Prosecuting Officer Lim Yeow Leong.
Ong and Neo each raised a plastic chair at each other during the confrontation, with Ong eventually throwing a chair at Long, but missing her.
The couple threw punches at Ong until staff and attendees of the event intervened and separated the group. The scuffle was caught on a video which was later circulated on social media.
The trio were then arrested by the police.
During the subsequent medical examination, Ong was diagnosed with facial lacerations and mild bruising, while Neo had abrasions over his right hand. Long was not found to have any injuries.
Mr Lim noted that the incident was “chaotic” had “caused disquiet to the public”.
During their mitigation, the couple asked for leniency through a Mandarin interpreter.
Neo said that he had acted “in the moment of being anxious for his wife”.
“I hope that this case can be dealt with as soon as possible cause I have been missing sleep over this since August,” said Neo.
Addressing the accused persons, District Judge Kessler Soh said: “I hope that this is something that you learn from and do not ever get involved in such an affray again.”
For affray, each accused person could have been jailed up to a year, or fined up to S$5,000, or both.