Woman gets a week's jail for lying to police she was molested
Trying to protect her boyfriend who had punched a man he thought was staring at his girlfriend, a woman lied to police that her boyfriend did so as the man had molested her.
This resulted in the police investigating the 35-year-old man for an offence he did not commit.
On Jan 12, Tan Qiu Yan, 24, was sentenced to one week's jail after pleading guilty to one charge of giving false information to a public servant.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Vincent Ong said the victim was walking along Lavender Street on Aug 11, 2023, when he saw Tan Qiu Yan and her boyfriend, Tan Jek He, 23, walking towards him.
He moved to make way for them but as they passed by, Tan Jek He thought that the victim was staring at his girlfriend.
Tan Jek He confronted the victim, who denied that he was staring, and punched the older man in his left cheek, which caused a laceration on his lower jaw.
The victim tried to push Tan Jek He away, but the latter continued disputing with him.
The victim then walked away and called his friends for help. Shortly after, he met his friends and they confronted Tan Jek He at Kitchener Complex.
When the police arrived, Tan Qiu Yan claimed that the victim had touched her buttock and that her boyfriend had retaliated by punching him.
Tan Jek He gave a similar story to the police regarding the incident.
DPP Ong said that the couple had conspired to cover up for Tan Jek He, as he had recently been released from prison for a previous offence, and they were worried that he would get into trouble for punching the victim. It was not stated in court documents what his previous offence was.
Tan Qiu Yan had come up with the idea that she had been molested by the victim. The couple agreed that if there were investigations into the matter, they would tell the police that the victim was punched as he molested her by touching her buttock.
DPP Ong said: "Both accused persons knew this to be false and that saying so would shift the blame for the incident to the victim and cause the police to investigate the victim for the purported molest."
When the police took a statement from the victim, he denied he had touched the woman and denied hitting her boyfriend.
Further police investigations using closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage ultimately revealed that there was no contact between the victim and Tan Qiu Yan.
On Aug 22, when the police recorded another statement from Tan Qiu Yan, she persisted in her account that the victim had molested her.
It was only after she was shown the CCTV footage that she admitted that he did not, in fact, molest her.