Pregnant woman, who assaulted cop, 2 men and girl in separate incidents, gets jail

SINGAPORE – A woman currently pregnant with her fifth child was sentenced to jail on Aug 7 after she assaulted her daughter’s 11-year-old former schoolmate, two men and a policewoman in four separate incidents.

On July 15, 2022, her children were referred to the Child Protective Service (CPS) due to concerns over their safety and well-being.

Later that month, she abused a child protection officer with vulgar language and threatened to kill a teacher who had been tasked to ensure that the children came to school regularly.

The offender, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her children who were below 18 at the time, also used abusive and threatening words on a second child protection officer in November that year.

On Aug 7, the 35-year-old woman was sentenced to eight months and 15 weeks’ jail after she pleaded guilty to two counts of assault.

She also admitted to one count each of harassment and voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant. Six other charges were considered during sentencing.

This was not the first time she has been jailed over acts of violence.

In 2017, she was ordered to spend time behind bars after she caused a serious, permanent injury to another woman. Details about this case cannot be disclosed, as doing so could reveal the offender’s identity.

Before handing down the sentence on Aug 7, District Judge Eugene Teo told the woman: “You are not the best version of yourself when you are acting in anger. Take a breath and calm down before you act.”

For her current cases, she was with a male companion at a Geylang restaurant shortly before midnight on Oct 19, 2020, when they got into a dispute with a 51-year-old man over an undisclosed matter.

Her co-accused, whose details have been redacted from court documents, pulled the victim out of his seat by the arm and dragged him to the middle of a nearby road.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Phoebe Tan said: “The accused... threw several punches on the victim’s face while the victim was on the ground.

“The co-accused then punched the victim in his face and, in the course of doing so, struck the victim’s face with his elbow. The force of the punch caused the victim to fall to the ground.”

The victim was lying on the ground when the woman punched and stepped on his face.

She stopped assaulting the victim only when her co-accused pulled her away from him.

A member of the public alerted the police soon after. Court documents did not state if the victim was taken to hospital, but he was later found to have facial fractures.

In an unrelated incident, the woman’s daughter and an 11-year-old girl had a dispute over an undisclosed matter on June 19, 2022. The daughter’s age was not disclosed in court documents.

The 11-year-old girl then slapped the offender’s daughter and pulled her hair before apologising.

When the woman found out about the incident, she confronted the 11-year-old – who was at the void deck of the offender’s block of flats at the time – and slapped the child’s face once.

Her children were later referred to the CPS.

On July 19, 2022, a child protection officer called the woman to arrange an interview with her.

However, the offender demanded for her children to be sent home and threatened to make a “big hoo-ha” if her demands were not met.

She later sent the officer expletive-laden text messages, and on July 21, 2022, she sent messages to a teacher at her children’s school, threatening to kill the educator.

The offender also used abusive and threatening words on a second child protection officer later that year.

On Sept 13, 2022, the offender was with the same male companion as the one involved in the 2020 attack when they assaulted a second man in a Geylang back lane.

Court documents did not disclose what happened next, but she was at the Police Cantonment Complex the following month when she kneed a policewoman in the groin.

The offender remained aggressive and continued to shout at the policewoman despite attempts to calm her down.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.