Teenage girl forces love rival to kowtow, leaves another with broken nose in separate attacks

SINGAPORE: Bearing a grudge against a girl for dating her ex-boyfriend, a teenager forced the victim to kowtow and punched her on the lips.

In a separate attack just hours later, she instigated a group of people to attack a 15-year-old girl at her friend's birthday party, leaving the victim with a broken nose.

Joyce Goh Kok Tin, 18, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Dec 3) to one charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by common intention and another of rioting. 

A third charge of criminal intimidation will be taken into consideration for sentencing.

Both incidents occurred just hours apart on Dec 17, 2018.

FIRST VICTIM BEATEN UP IN YISHUN

The court heard that Goh held a grudge against the first victim, a 17-year-old girl, for dating her ex-boyfriend. 

She was also upset with the first victim for choosing a boy named Farhan as her new boyfriend over another named Daniel, and felt that the victim was toying with Daniel's feelings.

Court documents did not specify what Goh’s relationship with Daniel was.

Flanked by four others and Daniel, Goh confronted the victim at a block in Yishun and punched her in the face.

A scuffle broke out and part of the group also assaulted Farhan and vandalised his e-scooter after Goh scolded him for not standing up for his girlfriend.

Goh then grabbed the victim's face and pushed her head to the ground, forcing her to kowtow to Daniel.

She also punched the victim on her lips, leaving a cut, and left.

ATTENTION DRAWN TO SECOND VICTIM VIA INSTASTORY

A few hours after the first attack, Goh came across an Instagram story of her friend's birthday party.

She noticed that a 15-year-old girl she worked with was at the party. Both of them worked as packers at a company.

Goh did not like her colleague as she felt she was "a slow and lazy worker", said Deputy Public Prosecutor Ryan Lim.

Goh texted the birthday girl and asked her to make sure the victim stayed at the party, as she wanted to beat the victim up.

With a few other teenage girls, Goh headed to the party at a condominium, arriving at about 5.30am.

The victim was lured to the swimming pool. There, Goh slapped her face, grabbed her hair, punched her and pulled her to the ground. Four others were involved in the assault.

With three girls sitting on the victim, Goh punched her face and kicked her head. She also flicked a lit cigarette onto the girl's neck. All the aggressors laughed at the victim.

The group later moved to the back of the condo after a security guard became aware of the noise at the pool.

There, Goh continued the assault, punching the victim and pushing her head against the wall repeatedly.

Another girl joined in and punched the victim's face, causing her nose to bleed. Goh asked this girl to punch the victim harder.

ASKED TO STOP, AGGRESSOR SAYS IT'S NOT ENOUGH

The birthday girl tried to intervene, but Goh replied that she was not done and pushed her away.

As the victim lay motionless on the floor, with her face down, another person in the group said they should stop. Goh replied again that she was not done.

She pulled the victim to a standing position and said: "I will dig out your eyeballs and put them in your bare hands. Then I’ll cut your nose off and dig out your intestine with my hands down your throat and any other organs I can grab. Then I’ll pluck off your nails one by one and skin you alive."

When the birthday girl's mother - who had witnessed the assault from her balcony - shouted at them, the group lied to her, saying that the victim had already been badly injured when they arrived.

The victim went to the KK Women's and Children's Hospital, where she was found to have multiple injuries, including a swollen lip, bruising on her forehead, cheek, elbow and knees, a circular burn on her neck, and a nasal fracture.

The hospital made a police report citing a case of child assault and the victim was warded.

The prosecutor asked for reports to assess Goh's suitability for both probation and reformative training, saying the assault was vicious, with Goh initiating the attacks.

GOH IS VERY YOUNG, WITH BRIGHT FUTURE: DEFENCE

Goh's defence counsel, Ng Kwong Loong from Populus Law, asked for probation, saying his client was very young with a bright future ahead of her, and that this was her first brush with the law.

"I've just been instructed by my client's dad that Joyce had anger management issues when she was in secondary school and saw a school counsellor, but (this) stopped when she dropped out," said the lawyer.

He said Goh was young at the time of the offences and "more vulnerable or susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures".

"She had mixed up with bad company, which swayed her to commit the offences in question," he said.

He said Goh, who is working as a promoter to support her family, is deeply remorseful and believes that she has let her friends and family down.

She was remanded and will return to court for sentencing on Dec 10.

The judge called for both probation and reformative training suitability reports, and adjourned sentencing to Dec 10.