Woman jailed for attacking 18-year-old she suspected of having an affair with her husband

SINGAPORE — Thinking that her husband was cheating on her with his 18-year-old work subordinate, Chen Xiaqin smashed a glass beer bottle over the other woman’s head, then tried to stab her with a shard.

She had done so because her husband had been behaving suspiciously and made a “sign of endearment” to the teenager before disappearing, Chen’s lawyer said. 

Chen, 39, was sentenced on Thursday (Nov 28) to seven months’ jail. She had pleaded guilty in July to one charge of causing hurt to her victim with a weapon.

The incident took place on May 10 last year, during a steamboat dinner to celebrate Chen’s birthday.

‘DROWNED HERSELF IN BEER’: LAWYER

The court proceedings were delayed for about an hour as Chen repeated multiple times that she could not give instructions to her lawyer Dhanwant Singh, given the language barrier. 

Her husband had hired Mr Singh but she had no more money to pay him, she added.

The judge ordered the lawyer to take Chen to his office and get a staff member to interpret for her.

When they returned to court an hour later, Mr Singh said that he had nothing further to say in mitigation.

Before she was sentenced, Chen told the court through a Mandarin interpreter that her husband had “chased” her and their three-year-old child out of their home. 

The child is now being taken care of in China by her mother, she added.

Sobbing at times, she alleged that her husband also scolded and hit her “for a long period of time”, and that she spent two days in hospital last month after the latest attack.

Mr Singh had said in mitigation that during the steamboat gathering, all the women — including Chen — were sitting at one table, while the victim sat at another table with the men.

Chen and her husband had an argument before he left. Chen thought she saw him making “a sign of endearment” to the teenager as he was leaving, Mr Singh added.

“She drowned herself in beer. She thought the victim was trying to take him away from her. It was her fear that something was happening between the victim and husband, but that was not so,” he told District Judge Ong Chin Rhu.

Mr Singh also said that a psychiatrist had diagnosed Chen with adjustment disorder, but the judge noted that the psychiatrist’s report said there was “no causative link” between the disorder and her offence.

WHAT HAPPENED

On the evening of the assault, Chen, her husband, who was the director of a production company, and his employees met at Hook On Steamboat in Geylang.

After the couple argued, he left the restaurant and she drank some bottles of beer. 

At around 7.30pm, she approached the victim from behind, pulled her hair twice and used a glass beer bottle to hit her on the back of her head.

The bottle shattered and they began struggling. Chen then tried to stab the victim with the broken bottle but she managed to block it with her arm, getting cut in the process.

All this was captured on the restaurant’s closed-circuit television camera.

The others intervened and separated the two women. The victim was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where she was found with cuts on her forearm and scalp.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Selene Yap said that she still has permanent scars there, and was hospitalised for four days.

“The accused was intoxicated. It was an unprovoked attack — she hit (the victim) from behind where she could not have seen or anticipated anything… There was a degree of persistence in wanting to hurt the victim,” added the prosecutor, who sought the sentence imposed.

For causing hurt with a weapon, Chen could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined or both.