Man jailed for beating up uncle after falsely accusing him of affair
He was drunk and wrongly suspected uncle was having an affair with his girlfriend
A man who returned home from a night of drinking found himself locked out of the flat he shared with his girlfriend and uncle.
Suspecting they were having an affair, Teh Wah Leng flew into a rage after entering the unit and attacked his 65-year-old uncle, Mr Ong Chin Hua.
Teh, 45, was sentenced to nine months' jail for voluntarily causing hurt to Mr Ong, who suffered a broken jaw and hand.
"There is no justification for such behaviour," District Judge Kenneth Yap told the court yesterday.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Dwayne Lum said Teh returned home at about 5.45am on Jan 13 last year after drinking alcohol.
When he found the main door locked, he grew suspicious that Mr Ong and his girlfriend, Ms Kong Lijin Teresa, 40, were having an affair - an allegation that the DPP described as "entirely false".
After entering the apartment, he grabbed a knife and headed for Mr Ong's bedroom, where he punched him in the face repeatedly, causing him to bleed around his left eye.
When Mr Ong walked to the toilet, Teh followed him in and threw a pail at him.
The older man then went to the living room, where Teh pointed the knife at himself and told Mr Ong to stab him. After his uncle refused, Teh hit him with a metal chair, and as he lay on the ground, continued to kick him in the chest.
Mr Ong, who works as a consultant in the wellness industry, was taken to Singapore General Hospital, where he was hospitalised for a day.
Five hours after the offence, Teh's blood alcohol level was found to be well over the drink-driving limit.
DPP Lum added: "Those who voluntarily imbibe alcohol must... take full responsibility for their subsequent offending.
"The severe pain and suffering endured by the victim served as unwarranted and unnecessary 'payback' for an entirely false allegation.
"There was no opportunity given to the victim to reason with the accused, nor was there any chance for the victim to disengage himself from the situation given the unrelenting and escalating nature of the assault."
Teh, a renovation coordinator, faced another charge of pointing a fruit knife at himself, which was likely to cause alarm - an offence taken into consideration during sentencing.
For voluntarily causing hurt, Teh could have been jailed for up to two years and also fined.
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