Straits Times, Singapore, 6 June 2003

Man jailed for glass attack on girlfriend

He will also receive 12 strokes after carving his name on her chest and brutalising her with a fluorescent tube; judge says acts were 'hideous'

By Selina Lum

A MAN who carved his name on his girlfriend's chest with a shard of glass, then brutalised her with a fluorescent tube and burnt and kicked her, was yesterday sentenced to three years and five months in jail and 12 strokes of the cane.

Pravin Kumar, 23, had pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two charges of causing hurt with offensive weapons to the woman between 8.50pm and 9.30pm on Sept 14 last year.

Two other charges were taken into consideration.

The customer services officer had admitted hurting his 25-year-old girlfriend after arguing with her at the fifth-level staircase of a multistorey carpark in Choa Chu Kang.

In his mitigation plea for Pravin yesterday, Mr S.S. Dhillon said his client had taken his girlfriend to the National University Hospital after hurting her.

The couple made up after the incident and continued to have a relationship for a 'substantial period of time', he said.

He described the incident as a 'lovers' tiff gone out of hand'.

The lawyer said that on that evening, Pravin had suggested they have a talk.

His girlfriend had apparently stayed somewhere the week before without telling him where she was. She had also sent him an SMS message, saying that she wanted to break up with him.

Pravin asked her to engrave his name on her chest because he wanted her to prove her love for him in a tangible manner, said the lawyer.

He noted that the woman only suffered minor injuries and was not warded. The medical reports showed that the letters engraved on her chest were merely 'superficial scratch imprints', he said.

Mr Dhillon said his client was remorseful and stressed that he was a first-time offender.

However, district judge Salina Ishak described what he had done as 'hideous' and a degradation to women.

'You left a mark of crime on her,' said the judge, adding that the brutal attack had left the woman emotionally scarred.

Pravin is appealing against the sentence.

Straits Times, Singapore, 10 June 2003

Man jailed for stabbing friend over a loan

A MAN stabbed his friend repeatedly because the latter got him into trouble with loansharks, a district court heard yesterday.

General worker Tan Leong Seng, 47, had borrowed $1,000 on Mr Sim Swee Kiang's behalf early last year, but Mr Sim did not repay the loan.

Angry at having been harassed by loansharks, Tan armed himself with a knife and went to Jurong Port to confront the 37-year-old Mr Sim.

In the middle of a heated argument on board the Princess Lily, where Mr Sim worked as an odd-job labourer, Tan took out the 14cm knife from his waist pouch and stabbed Mr Sim four times.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Robert Tan said Tan dropped the weapon and walked away when the knife broke into three pieces.

Mr Sim was warded for a day for the wounds, which were found to be superficial. Two of them, measuring about 4cm each, were on his left thigh near his groin and the other two, on his back.

Tan, who has four previous convictions for drink driving, voluntarily causing hurt, theft and cheating, was yesterday sentenced to 12 months in jail and three strokes of the cane for the March 1 assault.

Counsel Kertar Singh said in mitigation that his client, who has four children, agreed to help Mr Sim borrow money early last year because Mr Sim needed funds badly but had already borrowed $1,000 from a loanshark.

But on March 1, Tan's son called him to say that debtor's notes had been pasted outside the family's flat.

Mr Singh said Tan, who had become very upset with Mr Sim, went to see him, taking along the knife for self-protection.

He also said that during the argument, Mr Sim was not apologetic and had raised his hand to hit Tan first. Tan had stabbed Mr Sim in the heat of the moment, he said.