SINGAPORE: A housewife has been jailed and fined for beating her neighbour with a mop and pelting her with eggs, as she felt the noise the woman made while jumping rope was disturbing her son.
Jessinta Tan Suat Lin, 50, was jailed for four weeks and fined S$4,600 (US$3,400) on Tuesday (Feb 11).
She also told her teenage son she would kill his father in his sleep, and her husband made a police report after overhearing her threats.
Tan earlier pleaded guilty to one charge each of committing a rash act, voluntarily causing hurt and causing alarm with threatening words. Two more charges were considered in sentencing.
The judge previously ordered Tan to be assessed at the Institute of Mental Health on her suitability for a mandatory treatment order (MTO).
An MTO directs an offender suffering from certain treatable psychiatric conditions to undergo psychiatric treatment. It is a community-based sentence that does not leave a criminal record after completion.
Tan’s lawyer Shiever R argued for an MTO on the basis that a psychiatrist who assessed Tan after the offences found she had mixed anxiety-depressive disorder.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Zhou Yang sought four to five weeks’ jail and a fine, leaving the amount to the court to decide.
In sentencing, District Judge Crystal Goh noted that Tan was assessed to be unsuitable for an MTO, and her condition did not reach the threshold of contributing to her criminal behaviour.
While an egg was not a large object, it was still capable of causing harm, and it was fortuitous that the 26-year-old victim was not injured, the judge said.
Furthermore, Tan initiated the confrontation with her neighbour and hit the woman’s head, which is a vulnerable part of the body, multiple times.
Judge Goh also took into account that Tan had reoffended by uttering the threatening words against her husband while she was already under investigation for the earlier assault.
The judge said the Singapore Prison Service would receive a copy of Tan’s psychiatric report so her condition could continue to be monitored.
WHAT HAPPENED
Tan was living at Westmont, a cluster home development along West Coast Road, with her husband and son during the offences early last year.
Around 10pm on Feb 16, 2024, the victim was jumping rope at a common area near the development’s swimming pool. She was wearing earphones.
Tan, who was in her house, was unhappy with the noise that the victim was making while jumping rope, as her son wanted to rest.
She went out to the common area and confronted the victim, who refused to stop exercising.
Tan returned to her house and threw five to six eggs out the window at the victim. Some of the eggs hit the woman’s back.
She then got a mop and confronted the woman again, hitting the victim’s head multiple times. She used so much force that the mop’s aluminium pole broke into three pieces, and the victim bled.
Tan also threw a bag of rubbish and a metal incense bin at the victim.
The victim called the police. She was taken to the hospital with bleeding on her forehead, bruises and a swollen bite mark on her arm, and required stitches.
She was discharged on the same day with antibiotics. She later moved out of the development because of the assault.
Tan was arrested and subsequently released on bail of S$2,000. Her husband was her bailor at the time.
On Apr 28, 2024, while at home, Tan and her husband got into an argument over their son.
Tan sent her husband a text message threatening to jump bail if he messed with her, which would cause him to lose the S$2,000 he had put down as security.
Later that night, while talking to her son in the living room, Tan said that she might kill her husband in his sleep one day, and that he should lock his door.
She also threatened to report him to the police for raping her. Her husband overheard these words and made a police report that night.
The offence of committing a rash act that endangers life or safety carries a penalty of up to six months in jail, a fine of up to S$2,500, or both.
For voluntarily causing hurt, Tan could have been jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$5,000 or both.
She could also have been fined up to S$5,000 for using threatening words likely to cause alarm.
