Jail for man who punched woman, cut himself, Latest Singapore News - The New Paper
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Jail for man who punched woman, cut himself

This article is more than 12 months old

An unemployed man punched a woman in the face and on the body after she refused to have sex with him, a district court heard yesterday.

Shortly after the assault on July 11, Abusali S.K. Pakir Mydin, 38, took a chopper from the kitchen of an Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 flat and threatened to slash her face.

He then cut himself and called the police, saying he was injured and an "IMH patient", a reference to the Institute of Mental Health.

After being taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for treatment, he was transferred to the Ang Mo Kio Police Station and placed in a padded cell.

That evening, he took off his clothes and flushed them down the toilet bowl in his cell. He also flushed down the identification tag attached to his wrist.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mark Yeo Kee Teng said he did this to choke the toilet bowl, so it would fill with water. Abusali tried to drown himself by submerging his head in the water but was restrained by police officers there.

Yesterday, Abusali, who has had a string of previous convictions over the last two decades, was sentenced to two years' jail for criminal intimidation, two weeks for mischief and three months for causing hurt to the 37-year-old victim.

He pleaded guilty. District Judge Eddy Tham ordered two of the sentences - two years and two weeks - to run consecutively. The sentence for the hurt charge is concurrent.

Two other charges under the Protection from Harassment Act were considered during his sentencing.

The maximum penalty for causing hurt is two years' jail and a $5,000 fine. For criminal intimidation, he could have been jailed for seven years or more; for mischief, up to one year, fined or both.

- ELENA CHONG

COURT & CRIME