Man who threatened court employee with urine ordered to undergo treatment
Armed with a packet of his own urine, an unemployed man turned up at the State Courts last year and threatened to soak a staff member with the foul-smelling liquid.
Sim Swee Guan, who had been diagnosed with delusional disorder, was sentenced to a two-year mandatory treatment order (MTO) yesterday after pleading guilty last month to five counts of abusing public service workers, two counts of using abusive language against them and one count of committing wrongful restraint.
Under the MTO, offenders have to undergo treatment in lieu of jail time. But the order can be revoked if they reoffend or fail to comply with the conditions of their treatment.
The 57-year-old was a patient of the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) Orthopaedic Department and was not satisfied with a medical report he received.
He accused the hospital of giving him a fake report and repeatedly called its Service Quality Department for an explanation before hurling vulgarities at an officer on five occasions between Oct 29, 2015, and March 21 last year.
Still unhappy, Sim filed a magistrate's complaint at the Crime Registry Department of the State Courts in February last year against the SGH doctor who was involved in the medical report. He returned to the courts a month later.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Dwayne Lum said: "Prior to leaving his home... the accused urinated inside a plastic bag and (took) along the packet of urine with him to the State Courts. He intended to use the said plastic bag of urine to frighten the staff at the Crime Registry."
When he arrived at around 3pm on March 8 last year, he told a court employee that he was unhappy with his case and abused her with obscenities. He then demanded to see her colleague and threatened to throw the packet of urine which he held in his hands.
State Courts security personnel escorted Sim out and the police were alerted.
DPP Lum said that Sim was later told by the State Courts Crime Registry magistrate that his complaint had been dismissed and he had to refrain from making similar applications for the same case.
But he was back at around 12.30pm on July 21 last year, waiting on an overhead bridge near the courts to ambush staff members.
After a 30-minute wait, he spotted the head of the State Courts Crime Registry and grabbed his right upper arm. Sim accused the man of telling the magistrate not to look into his complaints any more.
The man told Sim that it was wrong of him to use criminal force and Sim released his grip and left.
For abusing a public service worker, Sim could have been jailed for up to a year and fined up to $5,000 for each charge.
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