22-year-old loses probation bid for assaulting, burning teen with lit cigarette

SINGAPORE — Angered that an 18-year-old teenager had hugged and touched his girlfriend during a drinking session, Jumaane Soon Kai Yuan decided to beat the teenager up. 

Soon, then aged 21, punched and slapped the boy at the void deck of a block of flats in Jurong West, before burning him on the cheek with a lit cigarette. Soon also threatened to burn his house down.

Soon appealed against his sentence of two months’ jail last November.

However, the High Court dismissed his bid for probation on Friday (March 27), saying that the district judge was correct in refusing to call for a probation suitability report.

Probation is usually offered to first-time offenders between 16 and 21 years old. This does not result in a recorded criminal conviction and allows young offenders to continue with their education or employment while serving their sentences.

District Judge Salina Ishak had ruled that Soon was not a young offender at the time, being six months shy of turning 22. 

He did not show an “extremely strong propensity for reform” and did not have any serious psychiatric conditions or mental disorders.

Soon had pleaded guilty to two charges related to the incident on Jan 1 last year.

TIPSY GIRLFRIEND

The court earlier heard that in November 2018, Soon’s 19-year-old girlfriend was drinking alcohol at a friend’s house with a group, including the 18-year-old teenager.

When she grew tipsy, she began filming the boy with her mobile phone. He stopped her from doing so by grabbing her hand and snatching the device from her, before they all left the house a while later.

Before parting ways, the boy hugged her and said goodbye. Uncomfortable with this, she told Soon about it.

Two months later on New Year’s Day, Soon and his friends were smoking at the void deck when he confronted the boy about the alleged inappropriate touching.

Soon demanded that the boy address him as “sir” and “captain” when answering his questions and to whisper his answers. Whenever he did not reply properly, Soon slapped him on his cheeks.

When Soon asked him to “touch his heart”, the boy put his hand over his chest. But Soon told him that his hand was not at his heart and punched him three times in the chest.

The victim also complied with Soon’s instructions to apologise to Soon’s girlfriend, while not retaliating to the repeated assaults. 

When the victim’s friends tried to stop Soon, he told them to mind their own business and said that even if they called the police, the police would not be able to do anything to him.

Soon then burned the victim with his cigarette, telling him that he knew where the boy lived and that he would burn his house down.

The victim made a police report the next day.

‘PERSISTED IN TORMENT’

On Friday, Soon’s lawyer Dhanwant Singh argued that his client had “just crossed the threshold” of 21 years of age.

“He’s someone of good record. His conduct in school and the army (while serving National Service) was good. He’s presently employed as a delivery assistant,” the lawyer added, while asking for a probation report to be called.

In response, Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Yong said that Soon was trying to downplay his culpability for the offences and the harm caused to his victim.

He had “persisted in his torment of the victim”, the prosecutor added.

“To say now that (Soon) was a young, foolish, naive individual is not borne out by the facts… He was much older than the victim who was 18. It’s precisely that kind of steep power gradient that he sought to exploit.

“He was the dominant force in the group. Despite having a crowd of witnesses watching him commit the offences, he had no qualms carrying on the torment of his victim,” he said. 

In upholding the jail sentence, Justice Chua Lee Ming said he was satisfied that it was not manifestly excessive. He allowed Soon to begin serving his jail time in a week.

For causing hurt by a dangerous weapon or means, Soon could have been jailed up to seven years, fined, caned, or any combination of the three.

For criminal intimidation by threatening to cause destruction of property by fire, he could have been jailed to 10 years, fined, or both.