Man gets jail for pushing 87-year-old cleaner who suffered skull fracture, traumatic brain injury in fall
SINGAPORE — A cleaner in his 80s was sweeping the grounds of Teban Gardens estate when an encounter with a younger man led to him sustaining a skull fracture and traumatic brain injury.
The younger man, Cheng Yew Kang, now 57, was sentenced to 10 months' jail on Friday (Aug 4) after he pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt to Heng Yew Chuan.
The court heard that on the morning of March 27 in 2021, Mr Heng, then 87, was sweeping the common area of Block 36 along Teban Gardens Road when he saw Cheng sitting on a bench.
Mr Heng asked Cheng if he could stand up so that he could sweep the area under the bench.
Thinking that Mr Heng was rude to him, Cheng stood up and said: "You think I'm scared of you, ah?"
Mr Heng replied that he was also not scared of him.
Cheng then moved towards Mr Heng who backed away from him.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kathy Chu told the court that Cheng then pushed Mr Heng, which caused the older man to fall and hit his head on the ground.
Cheng stood over him before passers-by went to help Mr Heng on seeing the situation.
Video footage from a closed-circuit television in the estate was played in court that showed the exact moment the physical assault happened.
Mr Heng was later taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital where he was found to have sustained multiple injuries including a non-displaced fracture (the fractured bone did not go out of place) of the left side of his skull, a skin tear over his right forearm with a cut, and traumatic brain injury.
Mr Heng stayed in hospital for 29 days where he also suffered an episode of delirium and was referred to the a physician specialising in geriatric medicine.
Before the incident, Mr Heng had been diagnosed with pre-dementia in March 2019, but was later found to have dementia with behavioural and psychological symptoms on Sept 9 in 2021, after the incident with Cheng.
DPP Chu said that the traumatic brain injury did cause Mr Heng’s pre-dementia condition to deteriorate.
Mr Heng died on April 11 this year.
Speaking on the behalf of Cheng, defence counsel Dhillon Surinder Singh said that Cheng did not intend to cause that kind of hurt to the victim but had acted in blind anger and a moment's weakness when he felt provoked.
Mr Dhillon urged the court to consider five months' jail for his client since this was a spur-of-the-moment incident and not a typical case of aggravated or planned assault.
In delivering his sentence, District Judge Ronald Gwee said that in cases such as this, one must bear in mind that the simplest of actions can cause the greatest of harm.
The judge added that matters like this cannot be resolved in the way that Cheng acted and the overreaction in this particular case cannot be condoned at all.
He also said that general deterrence has to be highlighted in order to prevent such incidences from happening to others in the future.
For voluntarily causing hurt, Cheng could have been jailed for up to five years or fined up to S$10,000, or both.
