Man jailed 56 weeks for abusing his mother
Ex-NUS graduate student punched 68-year-old mum in the face, used metal padlock to hit her groin and mentally abused her
A former National University of Singapore (NUS) graduate student who punched his mother in the face and used a metal padlock to hit her groin was yesterday jailed for 56 weeks.
Andy Koh Ju Hua, a master's student at the time of the offences, pleaded guilty on March 16 to four counts of voluntarily causing hurt to the 68-year-old woman. Koh, now 30, also barred her from taking a shower or making noise at home.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Magdalene Huang had earlier urged the court to sentence Koh to at least 50 weeks' jail, stressing that he had ill-treated and mentally abused his mother.
Citing reports from Pave Integrated Services for Individual and Family Protection Specialist Centre, she said Koh had banned his mother from drinking any liquids other than plain water.
He once ordered her to stand by a sink with an ice pack to her face for 12 hours after punching her. He watched her from his room and threatened to hit her if she put her hand down.
On other occasions, he struck his mother's head with a remote control, leaving a scar, and threatened to hit her genitals with a hammer, the court heard.
In an earlier statement, NUS said Koh is no longer with the university and had been on a leave of absence since August 2019.
He did not return to his studies after his leave and his candidature was terminated in January this year.
HOSPITALISED
His mother had run away on several occasions to seek shelter with other family members. She had also been hospitalised and placed in a safe house.
But she insisted on returning home, where her husband also lives, each time. She initially refused to make a police report as she did not want to jeopardise her son's future.
The acts of abuse started in 2017 and Koh, who claimed to suffer from a psychotic disorder, also kneed his mother in the groin in January 2018.
Her niece wanted to call the police but she refused. When she went to the hospital, she said she had had a fall, so as not to implicate Koh.
In December 2018, he hooked a metal padlock around his finger and swung it towards his mother's genital area multiple times as he was "angry over certain issues".
She called her brother for help and the police were called, but she told them she had fallen in the toilet.
In June last year, she finally told the doctors that her son had punched and hurt her. Police investigations found that Koh had punched his mother in the mouth thrice.
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