SINGAPORE: A divorced man who was already facing a case in a Family Court got angry with his 11-year-old daughter for not turning up to testify that he did not hit her and struck her multiple times on her forehead.
The girl later told her mother what happened and a police report was lodged.
The 46-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect his daughter’s identity, was sentenced to seven weeks’ jail on Tuesday (Nov 14) for hurting his daughter.
He was given another one week’s jail for a separate incident of shoving a petrol station worker who had caught him stealing biscuits. In total, his jail term was eight weeks.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of voluntarily causing hurt to a minor and using criminal force. Two other charges, including punching his daughter’s chest in January 2022 were taken into consideration.
The court heard that the man had been divorced from his wife, the mother of the victim, for several years.
At the time, they shared custody of their daughter, who usually stayed with her mother.
The man was jobless and stayed with his parents, who were supporting him financially. When he had access to his daughter, she would stay with him at her grandparents’ place, or sleep in his car with him.
On Oct 22, 2022, the man scolded his daughter while driving her to a class, chiding her for not turning up for a Family Court hearing two days prior, as his witness.
The girl had reported her father for hitting her in January 2022, and her mother applied for an expedited order.
The man had told his daughter to attend the Oct 20, 2022 hearing to testify that he had not hit her. In reality, he had. However, the girl did not show up for the hearing.
In the man’s anger, he hit his daughter’s forehead a few times while they were in the car.
The girl felt pain and began crying, but her father continued to scold her. She stopped crying before alighting and did not tell anyone about what happened even though she still felt pain, the court heard.
When the girl’s class ended, her father picked her up and began scolding her again for the same issue. He stopped at an open car park where he continued to scold her and hit her forehead.
As the man had overnight access to his daughter under custody arrangements that night, the girl slept in her father’s car along with him.
She told her mother what happened once she got home as she still felt pain and her mother accompanied her to make a police report.
The girl went to a hospital and was found to have suffered a bruise over her forehead and mild swelling with bruising near her eye region.
THE PETROL KIOSK INCIDENT
The offender also admitted to using criminal force on the store manager of a petrol station in Tampines in May 2021.
At the time, the offender was working as a private-hire driver. After refuelling his car, he walked into the petrol kiosk and paid for the petrol. He then took a packet of chocolate biscuits from a shelf and placed it into his pocket.
He was about to leave when the store manager confronted him and detained him. When the man heard that the police had been called, he shoved the store manager in the chest, threw the biscuits back and drove off.
The prosecution sought eight to 10 weeks’ jail for the man. He said the offender had committed violence against his own daughter in an enclosed space.
He has eight prior convictions for breaching personal protection orders or expedited orders against his ex-wife, the victim’s mother.
His most recent sentence in 2015 was a month’s jail, but he reoffended again, this time against his daughter, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Jonathan Tan.
He said the man was not remorseful, refusing to admit to his actions in investigations and trying to get his daughter to retract her complaints rather than taking responsibility for his mistakes.
In sentencing, the judge told the offender that he hoped the offender would deal with his anger management issue.