Electric New Paper, Singapore, 10 June 1997

Thief accuses wife of affair, confronts "other man" and

Hammers him

- Madam Tan, wife of hammer attack victim Ng Lai Heng

But even that did not sit well with Tan Hock Lye.

He suddenly became a "concerned husband" and accused his wife, a stallholder's assistant, of having an affair with a regular customer.

Tan, 39, then attacked the customer, Mr Ng Lai Heng, with a hammer, injuring his skull.

He refused to believe that the 48-year-old odd-job labourer was innocent.

Said Mr Ng's wife, Madam Tan, 49: "My husband was not having an affair. He was only being friendly to the woman. He spoke to her a few times when he went to the stall to have his meals."

Mr Ng was at work when The New Paper visited his Jalan Bukit Merah flat.

Madam Tan, a factory worker, said Tan had visited their home a few times looking for her husband. Each time, Mr Ng was away.

Said Madam Tan: "He would bang on the door and ask for my husband very fiercely. He would also loiter outside the flat to wait for him to come home."

She said that she asked her husband about Tan's claims.

"My husband told me how he met the woman and said that he had nothing to fear because he was innocent.

"I just told him to be careful and avoid the woman," she added.

But on Oct 1, 1995, at 9.40 pm, when Mr Ng was helping his friend at a newspaper stall at the hawker centre at Block 85 Redhill Close, Tan confronted him.

When Mr Ng denied the affair, Tan took out a hammer and hit Mr Ng on the head.

TWO WEEKS IN HOSPITAL

Said Madam Tan: "My husband was bleeding so much. He had to have more than 10 stitches. He spent two weeks in the hospital."

Not only was Mr Ng's skull dented, his left shoulder and right wrist were also hurt.

Tan pleaded guilty to badly hurting Mr Ng.

Yesterday, he told District Judge Seng Kwang Boon his wife had since left him and his mother had to look after his two children.

Straits Times, Singapore, 12 June 1997

They threw man into sea

THREE Indonesians here tied a fellow countryman to a big rock and threw him into the sea in March. They also robbed three houses of nearly $40,000 in cash, jewellery and other items the week before that.

The trio -- Muhammad Said, 25; Samsudin Abdul Rahman, 21; and Syafrudin Haji Hussin, 31 -- admitted yesterday to:

Endangering the life of Mr Laode Alimudin, 26, on March 19;

Robbing a couple of $12,120 in cash, jewellery and watches while armed with a screwdriver; and

Robbing another couple of $14,466 while armed with a knife.

District Judge Seng Kwang Boon sentenced them to a total of seven years and three months' jail and 24 strokes of the cane each.

They were given the maximum of three months' jail for rashly endangering Mr Laode's life, and 3½ years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane on each of the two armed robbery charges. The sentences will run consecutively.

Each man had five other charges taken into consideration. These were: Two housebreaking attempts, hurting Mr Laode while robbing him, entering Singapore illegally, and armed robbery.

The three had been charged with attempted murder, but this was reduced to rashly endangering Mr Laode's life, to which they pleaded guilty.

The maximum penalty under the new charge is three months' jail and a $250 fine.

The court heard that at 3.50 am on March 15, the trio, armed with a screwdriver, broke into Mr Leslie Earnest's house in Jalan Novena Selatan and robbed him and his wife of $12,120. An accomplice, referred to as Musadi, kept a lookout.

At 9 pm, they broke into Mr K. B. Anbanpola's home in Nanyang View and robbed him and his wife of $14,466 at knifepoint. Syafrudin and Musadi watched over the couple, while the other two ransacked the house.

Four days later, on March 19, Muhammad approached Mr Laode, who was resting beside a mud track off Tuas South Avenue 4, and made him follow him to the beach nearby.

Minutes later, Muhammad, together with the other two, who were already there, accused Mr Laode of taking their belongings.

When he denied this, they robbed him of $145 in cash and tied his hands with a rope, then used another rope to tie a big rock to his legs before dumping him into the sea.

They could have been jailed up to 14 years on each charge of armed robbery. The accomplice, Musadi, will be dealt with later.

Electric New Paper, Singapore, 17 June 1997

Every day, she heard the children scream:

Please don't hit me, please

The girl would also plead with her father. She would cry out: 'Please don't hit me anymore, please'. The crying was just unbearable and painful for me... I'm not the kaypoh (nosy) sort. I had to help the children. I didn't want them to get hurt anymore.

- Madam Teresa Soh

WHACKS. Pitiful screams of pain.

The first time Madam Teresa Soh heard them, she looked out of her office kitchen window into the flat across the road and was stunned.

A man was mercilessly flogging his two young children - a five-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy - with a long plastic toy sword.

Said Madam Soh, who works for a design and engineering firm at Race Course Road: "The toy sword, about 40 cm long, was hollow and the whacking sound was echoing from the living room.

"I could see the man's arms moving up and down while his children crouched in fear."

At first, Madam Soh, 32, thought the man - who moved into the rented flat around Lunar New Year - was only disciplining his children.

But then the chilling scene was repeated every day for two weeks. Police later found the man, Mak Kheong Chee, a Malaysian, had been beating his children for 40 days.

Said Madam Soh: "The beatings would start at about 9 am and then once again before lunch. Each beating lasted for half an hour to an hour. Once I saw the boy standing in the room being punished, his hands pulling his ears with his face red.

"The girl would also plead with her father. She would cry out: 'Please don't hit me anymore, please'. The crying was just unbearable and painful for me," said the mother of two sons aged 2 and four.

Madam Soh said she never saw the children's mum, only their father. And he wouldn't listen to anyone.

Said Madam Soh: "Once, someone shouted at him to stop, but he yelled back telling the person to mind his own business."

Finally, Madam Soh couldn't take it any more. First, she tried calling the SOS hotline but couldn't get through. Then, on March 21, she called the police.

When the police took the little girl to hospital later that day, she had bruises on her ears, lips, cheeks, both arms, chest, neck and back. The boy, too, had bruises all over his body.

Said Madam Soh: "I have children and I know there's a limit when it comes to disciplining them."

The police contacted the Ministry of Community Development and the children were moved to a welfare home. Their father was jailed. (See report at left.)

Said Madam Soh's friend, Mr Frederick Tan, 25, who had also heard the cries: "What she did was right. She probably saved the children's lives."

Girl: I was naughty

APART from beating his children, Mak Kheong Chee, 30, is also a drug addict and an overstayer.

His wife told hospital staff that they had been separated for two years and reunited just a month or two before his arrest on March 21.

His daughter said she was beaten up because she had "been naughty and lied".

Mak, a Malaysian, pleaded guilty to two charges of abusing his two children between Feb 10 and March 21 this year.

WHAT MCD SAYS

A Ministry of Community Development spokesman said the two children have been placed in a welfare home.

Said the spokesman: "MCD has been working closely with the children's mother on the care arrangements of the children.

"MCD has also assisted the mother to tide over her financial difficulties."

Straits Times, Singapore, 20 June 1997

Jailed: Illegal immigrant who stole, robbed

THIEVES broke into a restaurant in Cuppage Centre last August and carted away a safe containing $90,000 and other items, a district court heard. Yesterday, Indian national Jahir Hussain, 27, was jailed for 30 months for housebreaking and theft with five others at Orchard Maharajah Restaurant.

One of the five accomplices was a former employee of the restaurant.

Shortly after 3 am on Aug 1 last year, this man and another climbed up a ladder to the roof, about two doors away from the restaurant.

After getting up to the roof, they climbed into the restaurant through an open sunroof.

Police prosecutor Kaka Singh said Jahir, who acted as a lookout, was given $2,000 for his role in the crime.

Jahir also admitted conspiring with two men to rob a moneychanger of $40,000 in the driveway of the Hyatt Regency in Scotts Road on Sept 22 last year .

One of Jahir's accomplices punched the moneychanger, Mohamed Illyas Abdul Latiff, 30, who was carrying the money in a plastic bag under his arm.

Jahir's role was to keep watch on the moneychanger at Far East Plaza where he worked.

From this robbery, Jahir received $1,500. For this, he was sentenced to five years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane.

He was also sentenced to one month and three strokes for entering Singapore illegally. He did not have any travel document when police arrested him at Marshall Road on June 5 .

District Judge Seng Kwang Boon ordered all the sentences to run consecutively, which means that the total sentence is seven years, seven months and 15 strokes.

Jahir could have been jailed for up to 20 years for robbery with hurt, and as much as 14 years for housebreaking and theft.

Straits Times, Singapore, 20 June 1997

Man gets jail, caning for drug offences

A 22-YEAR-OLD man was sentenced to six years' jail and seven strokes of the cane yesterday for trafficking in Ecstasy pills and other drug offences.

Allan Low Seng Yoong admitted selling three tablets to three youths for $90 outside Mechmaster Billiard Centre at the East Coast Parkway on March 1. He was given five years and seven strokes for this.

He got a consecutive sentence of one year for taking Ecstasy, and a two-year term to run concurrently for having 23 Ecstasy tablets in the billiard centre on March 2.

A fourth charge of having cannabis was considered for sentencing.

The court heard that after the arrest of the three youths for drug possession, the police managed to arrest Low. The case against the trio has not been dealt with.

Low has a previous conviction for theft.

He could have been jailed for up to 20 years and given 15 strokes for trafficking.

Electric New Paper, Singapore, 24 June 1997

In court the same day

Again & again

ONE man was in three courtrooms for six crimes - all in just one day.

As Ravinthran Kalimuthu, 33, (right) zipped from courtroom to courtroom yesterday, he collected jail terms, fines and a date with the rotan.

He started the day in Court 23 on the third floor of the Subordinate Courts and was jailed two weeks for fighting.

Then in Court 14 he was fined - $400 for a parking offence and another $400 for not submitting his income tax returns.

He did not pay, so he'll be jailed four days instead.

In the afternoon, Ravinthran was up in Court 11 on the fifth floor for three more crimes.

But he was late.

An arrest warrant was issued. But it was withdrawn when it was found he had been in another courtroom.

His last date was also his most serious one.

On Jan 12, Ravinthran accidentally bumped into a man in Desker Road.

Armed with a knife, Ravinthran challenged the man, then walked off.

But the man, Police Constable Ponnusamy Lohkanadan, 20, who was in plain-clothes, followed him with a colleague.

Ravinthran suddenly turned around, held the 20-cm blade at PC Ponnusamy's neck and threatened to slash him.

He punched the constable in the jaw before walking off.

But the policemen called for reinforcements and Ravinthran was arrested.

The penalty: Eight strokes of the cane and three years' jail for criminal intimidation, causing hurt and having a weapon.

His tally at the end of the day: Three years, two weeks and four days in jail. And eight strokes of the cane.