Man attacked girlfriend on hotel steps after birthday celebration, fracturing her eye socket

SINGAPORE: What started out as a birthday celebration with dinner and drinks ended with a man assaulting his girlfriend on the steps of a hotel, fracturing her eye socket.

For his intoxicated attack, Muhammad Fairuz Juprey, 30, was sentenced to nine months' jail on Monday (Sep 30) after pleading guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to 37-year-old Norazlin Abdul Karim.

The court heard that the couple went for dinner at Clarke Quay on Nov 28 last year to celebrate Fairuz's birthday.

After dinner, they went to a pub and consumed "a significant amount of alcohol", said Deputy Public Prosecutor Leanne Cheng.

They then headed to the Royal Plaza on Scotts hotel at 25 Scotts Road, where Fairuz tried to book a room for the night. There were no vacancies left, so the two of them started to leave, the court heard.

They began quarrelling at the staircase of the hotel's entrance.

Fairuz tried repeatedly to take the woman's hand to persuade her to follow him, but she resisted him and walked away. She sat down at the staircase while continuing to resist her boyfriend's attempts to lead her away by the hand.

He then slapped her and hit her head twice, before pulling her backwards by her hair.

She fell to the ground and used her hands to cover her face while Fairuz punched her head and kicked her body.

The woman got up and stood behind a passer-by, who tried to calm Fairuz down, and the couple had another heated argument.

Fairuz then lunged towards the woman and landed punches on her head and body, stopping only when the passer-by intervened again.

The night manager at the hotel called the police, saying a couple was arguing and that the woman was bleeding from her head.

The victim was taken to hospital and Fairuz denied hitting her when the police arrived.

"He was intoxicated, incoherent and uncooperative, moving around even after several warnings from the police to sit down," said the prosecutor.

A medical report stated that the victim had a fracture in her eye socket, with swelling around her eye.

She was offered surgery to repair the fracture but she was not keen on this and was given outpatient clinic appointments with the minor head injury clinic, plastic surgeons and eye doctors. She was discharged with 15 days of hospitalisation leave.

A sample of Fairuz's blood found 100mg of ethanol per 100ml of blood, with the prosecutor stating that Fairuz was intoxicated during the attack on his girlfriend.

For voluntarily causing hurt to the victim, Fairuz could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined or caned.