Man admits assaulting then-girlfriend after she refused sex due to religious reasons

SINGAPORE: When his then-girlfriend refused to have sex with him because of religious reasons, a student got angry, tore pages from her religious book and assaulted her.

The man, who is now 22, pleaded guilty on Thursday (Jan 26) to one count of voluntarily causing hurt to a person he was in an intimate relationship with and a second count of voluntarily causing hurt. A third charge will be considered in sentencing.

A gag order on the victim prevents the publication of anything that might identify her, and all parties' names were redacted from court documents.

The court heard that the accused and the victim were both 20-year-old students at the time of the offence in 2020.

They were in a relationship since late 2018.

On Aug 16, 2020, the victim went to the accused's house, where they watched a movie in the bedroom.

They started becoming physically intimate with each other and the accused wanted to have sex with the victim, said the prosecutor.

However, the victim refused and said she did not want to have pre-marital sex because of religious reasons.

A few hours later, they had an argument about the victim's religion, which was not named in court documents.

In his anger, the accused took the victim's religious book and tore out a few pages. In response, the victim threw the accused's phone on the ground.

The dispute escalated and the accused punched the victim's face, strangled her with both hands and kicked her stomach.

When the victim said she had a video recording of the assault, the accused was enraged and punched the victim in the stomach again before pushing the back of her head against a wall.

The victim escaped and later sought medical attention for grazes on her neck and finger. She declined medication and was given three days' medical leave.

She lodged a police report on the day of the assault, and the accused was arrested and later released on police bail.

In November 2020, the couple broke up. The victim tried to avoid the accused, but he kept persuading her to reconcile and would go to her house to do so.

On Nov 17 2020, the accused went to the victim's house, but she did not want to talk to him. He waited at a bus stop for her to show up.

When he spotted her, he tried to convince her to get back together with him, but she refused.

When the victim's bus arrived, she tried to board it, but the accused grabbed her arm tightly, preventing her from boarding the bus.

Five days later, the accused went to the victim's class to look for her and asked her to go to his house to study.

She eventually agreed to do so, as she was afraid, said the prosecutor. 

While they were studying in the accused's house, he broached the topic of their relationship, but the victim refused to get back together with him.

They began arguing, and the accused slapped the victim on her cheek.

After this incident, the accused continued to text and call the victim, so she made another police report.

The prosecution asked for three to five weeks' jail for the charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a person he was in an intimate relationship with.

She left the sentence for the other charge to the court.

She said the attack took place in the context of the victim refusing to have sex with the accused.

"Instead of respecting the victim's desire to abstain from sexual intercourse, he flew into a rage and tore the pages out of her religious book before taking his frustrations out physically on her," she said.

The prosecutor said the accused's conduct was "reprehensible" and against a vulnerable victim whom the accused was in an intimate relationship with at the time.

He also targeted the vulnerable parts of the victim's body, punching her face, strangling her neck and kicking her stomach.

The accused's second set of offences were committed while on police bail, said the prosecutor. 

The judge called for a probation suitability report and adjourned the case to February.