Corpun file 23448

The Straits Times, Singapore, 13 August 2011

Dishwasher molested teenager in lift

By Elena Chong

WHILE at home one night, a dishwasher felt sexually aroused and decided to look for girls, a district court heard yesterday.

Chinese national Li Yan (right), 20, went to Haig Road at about midnight on June 29 and waited for several hours until he saw a Vietnamese woman get out of a taxi alone.

He followed the 18-year-old victim, who was in Singapore on a social visit, into a lift and said he wanted to have sex with her.

She ignored his advances and said she would call the police.

When she tried to move away, he pulled her hand towards him and cupped her mouth to prevent her from screaming.

He warned her that he would punch her if she continued to struggle or shout for help. She became frightened and began to cry.

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Li put his hand under her bra and molested her. He also pressed himself against her. She shouted for help. When the lift reached the ground floor, he fled.

A resident who was waiting for the lift managed to grab Li, who struggled free and ran towards another block. Another resident gave chase after he realised something was amiss.

The two men detained Li in a carpark and called the police. Yesterday, Li was sentenced to four years in jail and six strokes of the cane. He could have been jailed for up to 10 years; caning is limited to 24 strokes.

Corpun file 23466

The Straits Times, Singapore, 25 August 2011

15 years, 12 strokes for stabbing death

Jobless man chided for 'irrational act' of knifing man over pushing row

By Elizabeth Soh

A JOBLESS man was yesterday given 15 years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane for stabbing another man to death over a pushing incident.

Tan Keng Huat, 36, convicted of culpable homicide, was chided by Justice Steven Chong for having committed an "irrational act" that led to a "completely unnecessary loss of a life".

Tan had in June 2009 stabbed Mr John Vettamooto, then 46, in the chest with a diving knife, causing a chest wound 18cm deep and 5cm wide.

Mr John died in hospital 11½ hours later.

An argument had broken out earlier when Mr John accidentally bumped into Tan's older brother, Mr Tan Thian Chye, 41, at the foot of a block of flats in Redhill Close.

The argument turned into a fist fight, during which Mr John yanked off Mr Tan's ivory necklace and threw it on the ground.

Tan Keng Huat and another brother, Tian Sze, when told of this incident, confronted Mr John.

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Tian Sze went at Mr John with a plastic chair, while Keng Huat stabbed him in the chest and slashed his cheek twice.

The same night, the two brothers fled to Malaysia, where they went into hiding.

Tian Sze was arrested, extradited three weeks later and convicted of voluntarily causing hurt. He was sentenced to two months in jail.

Keng Huat was arrested by Malaysian police in August that year for overstaying.

In mitigation, his court-appointed lawyer Christopher Bridges said his client was remorseful, had a lower-than-average IQ of 72, and had suffered from depression while on the run.

This was not Tan Keng Huat's first brush with the law. He has served jail time for drug possession, drug consumption and house breaking since 1992.