SINGAPORE: A man was not on good terms with his wife but refused to get divorced, and behaved in a way that his spouse had to get personal protection orders.
He also exhibited family violence against his wife and children and brought another woman home.
The 47-year-old man was sentenced to six weeks’ jail on Tuesday (Aug 1) after pleading guilty to three charges of voluntarily causing hurt and breaching a personal protection order.
He initially claimed he never intended to hurt his wife, but rescinded this after learning he had to admit to intention or his guilty plea would be rejected.
The court heard that the man, a China national and Singapore permanent resident, was married to a 47-year-old woman whose nationality was not revealed.
They had not been on good terms since 2015, and while his wife wanted a divorce, the accused did not.
The couple had three children – two daughters aged 19 and 13, and a nine-year-old boy.
The man’s wife obtained personal protection orders in November 2021 for herself and her children, restraining the man from using family violence against them.
She was also granted an order that her husband be excluded from her bedroom and the children’s bedroom.
The man was also ordered to attend counselling for alcohol-related problems.
On Jan 5, 2023, the couple’s eldest daughter saw the accused bringing a woman to his bedroom. She also saw the woman in a state of undress.
When the wife found out, she confronted her husband around midnight, saying she wanted a divorce.
She told her intoxicated husband that he was “not allowed to go out and spend money on other women” and took his handphone, wallet and keys from him before locking herself and the three children in her bedroom.
The man began banging continuously on the bedroom door at about 2am. Angered, he threatened his wife and kids that if they did not open the door, they would be “doomed”.
The woman and her children feared for their safety, and the man struck at the door with a hammer until one of his daughters called the police.
On another occasion on May 10 this year, the man rushed into his wife’s bedroom at about 1am and switched off the light.
He had been drinking again, and had contravened the exclusion order by entering his wife’s bedroom.
The man then punched his wife’s face and grabbed her index finger, hurting her. When their younger daughter saw that her father was about to punch her mother again, she pushed him out of the room.
The man’s wife called for police assistance again.
On Tuesday, the prosecutor called for six to 10 weeks’ jail, noting the offender’s repeated disregard for personal protection orders and “a prolonged pattern of criminal behaviour” towards his wife.
The offender, who was remanded and had no lawyer, said he had “contributed a lot” to his family.
He said in Mandarin: “In prison, I’ve been reflecting over this matter seriously. I’m all along for this family the sole breadwinner.”
He said he was recently retrenched and needed to find a job soon.
“I need to take care of my … children. I have been remanded for 24 days, so I hope that the remainder of my sentence can be substituted with a fine. I would really need to find a job to pay for the school fees of my children,” he said.
The judge told the man that he could not pay a fine for the remainder of his sentence, after backdating to take into account his remand period.
“He has to serve his sentence,” said the judge to the interpreter.
He told the offender that he expected him to look for a job.
“Don’t get drunk, or threaten or hit your family members again,” he said.
The man nodded and said he understood.
For voluntarily causing hurt, he could have been jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$5,000, or both.
For contravening a protection order under the Women’s Charter, he could have been jailed up to six months, fined up to S$2,000, or both.