Man jailed 7 months for threatening to kill nurse, assaulting cabbie
Reuters file photo
SINGAPORE — Unhappy when a clinic’s staff called in the police over his girlfriend leaving the clinic without paying for her medication, Ng Chong Guan later threatened to bomb the premises and kill them.
The 27-year-old Singaporean was today (Sept 25) sentenced to seven months’ jail for two counts of threatening to kill a nurse at Anteh Dispensary and one count of voluntarily causing hurt to a taxi driver. Four other charges for harassing the same nurse was taken into consideration.
The court heard that on the afternoon of June 24, Ng and his girlfriend had visited Anteh Dispensary located at 368 Geylang Road to see a doctor. He had a cough while she was suffering from asthma, rash and a runny nose. Shortly after, Ng’s girlfriend left without paying for the treatment and medication.
A doctor at the clinic called the police and refused to let Ng go after his girlfriend, fearing that he, too, might run away. The police arrived to mediate, but his girlfriend did not return.
Five days after the encounter, Ng made several calls to the clinic and harassed nurse Chan Way Cheu by shouting vulgarities, the court heard.
On June 30, he again phoned the clinic thrice between 10.20am and 10.40am — once to harass and twice to threaten Ms Chan, 59. In a mixture of Hokkien, English and Mandarin, he told Ms Chan, who had recorded some of the threats: “I am a 369 gangster...today I will send my men to bomb your...clinic...you betray my girlfriend right, betray him right, let me tell you, you will be die, get killed by five o’clock.”
Ms Chan was “very alarmed” on receiving the threatening calls — made from public phones outside the Central Provident Fund Building in Bishan and opposite the Bishan bus interchange — and called the police.
District Judge Lim Keng Yeow said that Ng’s threats were grave and he had repeated them for emphasis, intending to cause the victim as much fear and alarm as possible. He was not persuaded that there were mitigating factors in this case, despite a report that found that Ng had mild intellectual disabilities.
“It is clear (that) he had clarity of mind (at the time of his offences),” said DJ Lim, adding that Ng had made the calls using public phones to protect his identity. “There is no cognitive mental impairment that reduces his culpability.”
Today, Ng was also sentenced for assaulting taxi driver at about 7.40am on June 20. Ng, who was in Mr Tan Kok Chiew’s cab, had reached his destination when he told Mr Tan he needed to get money from a factory nearby to pay for the fare. When Mr Tan requested that Ng leave his belongings in the cab as security, the latter refused and a dispute broke out between them. Ng kicked Mr Tan in his right rib and leg, causing abrasion and facial fractures.
For criminal intimidation by anonymous communication where a death threat is involved, Ng could have been jailed nine years. For voluntarily causing hurt, he could have been jailed two years and/or fined S$5,000.
