Jail for man who punched passerby, conspired with girlfriend to lie to police that she was molested

SINGAPORE — Believing that a passerby had been staring at his girlfriend, Tan Jek He punched the person in the face.

Then, fearing he would be in trouble since he had been recently released from prison, Tan lied to the police that the passerby had molested his girlfriend. The girlfriend did the same.

On Monday (March 11), Tan, 24, was sentenced to eight weeks' jail after pleading guilty to lying to the police and voluntarily causing hurt. He was given another 40 days' jail because he was a repeat offender.

Two charges of breaking into a car and stealing several items including a passport and watch were taken into consideration during sentencing.

His girlfriend Tan Qiu Yan, 24, was sentenced to one week's jail in January for providing false information to the police. She was four months' pregnant then.

Tan will begin his sentence on May 20 after the courts granted him a deferment to spend a week with his newborn, who is due to arrive on May 11.

THE COVER-UP

The court heard that on the evening of Aug 11 last year, Mr Zaman Sariful, then 35, was walking along a covered walkway along Lavender Street while using his mobile phone.

Noticing that Tan and his girlfriend were walking towards him from the opposite direction, Mr Zaman moved to make way for them.

Tan thought that Mr Zaman was staring at his girlfriend and confronted him. Although Mr Zaman denied doing so, Tan punched Mr Zaman once on the left cheek, leaving a cut on his left lower jaw.

Mr Zaman then pushed Tan away before walking off to call his friends for assistance.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Vincent Ong told the court that at the time, Tan had just been released from prison and was on a remission order. He had been sentenced to nine months' jail last year for voluntarily causing hurt.

Under a remission order, inmates who display good conduct are released from jail after serving two-thirds of their sentence, on the condition that they do not reoffend during that period. 

Tan and his girlfriend were then afraid he would be in trouble for punching Mr Zaman.

The couple agreed that if there were investigations into the assault, they would tell the police that Tan had acted only because Mr Zaman had touched the girlfriend's right lower butt cheek.

Shortly after the incident, Mr Zaman met with his friends and found the couple along a pavement near NTUC FairPrice supermarket at 808 Kitchener Complex.

They then detained Tan and called the police.

While being interviewed, Tan's girlfriend lied that Mr Zaman had molested her and her boyfriend had retaliated by punching Mr Zaman.

She also told the police that she wished for action to be taken against Mr Zaman.

The police then took a statement from Mr Zaman, who denied touching the woman and hitting her boyfriend.

As a result of the false information, the matter was referred to the Special Victims Unit of the Singapore Police Force for further investigation into the alleged molestation.

During investigations, closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the incident showed that there was no contact between Tan's girlfriend and Mr Zaman.

About 10 days later, another statement was taken from Tan's girlfriend who repeated that she had been molested.

She finally admitted that she had lied to the police after being shown CCTV footage, DPP Ong said.

When the police interviewed Tan on the same day, he admitted that he had asked his girlfriend to lie to the police on his behalf and that Mr Zaman had not molested her.

NO REMORSE

DPP Ong called for a sentence of seven to eight weeks' jail, with another 40 days' jail due to Tan's past brushes with the law.

He noted that Tan was being violent and had punched Mr Zaman because he suspected that Mr Zaman had looked at his girlfriend.

The enhanced punishment of 40 days' jail is to "sanction his repeat offending", DPP Ong added.

Tan's lawyer from the Public Defender's Office had pleaded for leniency, but District Judge Lim Tse Haw questioned if he should be granted it.

The judge pointed out that Tan had broken the law despite being handed charges of attacking Mr Zaman and lying to the police.

He was referring to Tan being charged with breaking into a car and stealing items in there more than two months after the attack on Mr Zaman. These charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

"This shows an utter lack of respect for the law. Being under investigation did not deter him from other offences," District Judge Lim said, adding that Tan had shown no remorse.

However, he allowed Tan to defer his sentence, noting that his wife was expecting in May and that he had appeared for all his court hearings. The judge also warned Tan not to offend again or he would be put into remand.

For voluntarily causing hurt, Tan could have been jailed for up to three years or fined up to S$5,000, or both.

For providing a public servant false information, he could have faced up to two years' jail or been given a fine, or both.