SINGAPORE: After a dispute with a fellow moviegoer, a man forcefully kicked the headrest of the victim before trying to flee the cinema hall.
But when pursued by the victim, the young man turned and pushed the victim, causing him to fall down six flights of stairs.
The victim was taken to hospital and was unable to get up due to the pain in his neck and lower back. He was given medical leave for 30 days and was unable to work, incurring more than S$1,800 (US$1,404) in medical bills.
Wong Jun Feng, 25, was sentenced on Monday (Aug 18) to jail for four weeks. He was ordered to pay compensation of S$93.09, which was the amount the victim paid for his medical bills via Medisave. The rest was covered by insurance.
However, Wong said he chose to serve one day’s jail in default, instead of paying the compensation.
He pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt that turned out to be grievous, with a second charge involving kicking the victim’s headrest taken into consideration.
WHAT HAPPENED
The court heard that Wong went to watch a movie at Shaw Theatres at Waterway Point in Punggol on the night of Jun 26, 2024.
The victim, whose age was not given in court papers, went to watch the same movie with his wife and son.
Wong sat directly behind the victim. About an hour into the movie, Wong kicked the back of the victim’s chair. The man turned around and told Wong to stop.
They got into a dispute over this and the victim left the cinema to look for staff members. Employees at the cinema approached Wong about the incident, but the victim told them that he no longer required their help as Wong was no longer kicking his chair.
As the movie came to an end, Wong was still unhappy about the dispute. In video footage played in court, he had forcefully kicked the back of the victim’s headrest before getting up and quickly starting to leave.
The victim got up and pursued Wong up the stairs in the hall. Wong turned around, lunged towards the victim and pushed his shoulders forcefully with both hands.
The victim lost his balance and fell backwards down about six flights of stairs. The force of Wong’s push was so great that it caused him to also fall backwards.
Immediately after this, he fled without checking on the victim.
The victim fainted for about a minute after he fell. When he regained consciousness, the lights had been turned on and bystanders helped to lift him up.
He was taken to Sengkang General Hospital, prescribed medicine for pain control and warded for medical investigations.
The victim was warded from Jun 27 to Jul 1, 2024, with neck pain, right upper limb pain and back pain. He was discharged and given one month of medical leave.
In the first two weeks of his leave, the victim continued to suffer pain that was so severe he required painkillers to sleep.
His medical bills amounted to S$1,861.93, which were fully covered by insurance and MediSave.
During his medical leave, the victim was able to perform daily chores but was unable to go to work, said the prosecutor.
He was affected financially as he was unable to do his part-time job at a restaurant, which would have paid him S$150 a day.
PUBLIC DISQUIET
The prosecution sought five to six weeks’ jail for Wong, saying that the attack had happened in a cinema hall with other moviegoers around and resulted in public disquiet.
Wong initiated the confrontation and fled the scene immediately, making it more difficult to catch him if he had not been detained, said the prosecutor.
However, she recognised that Wong was “relatively young” and had no prior criminal record.
Defence lawyer Kalaithasan Karuppaya from Regent Law sought no more than four weeks’ jail for his client, saying Wong was remorseful and had cooperated with the authorities.
In his mitigation plea, he said that because of this case, Wong had resigned from his job as a porter at Sengkang General Hospital.
He is currently working multiple odd jobs to make ends meet, said the lawyer.
He added that Wong was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in his adolescence and was later diagnosed with adjustment disorder when he enlisted for National Service.
In the mitigation plea, Mr Kalaithasan also said that his client had offered to compensate the victim but had been told by the prosecution that the fees were borne by insurance and no compensation was required.
The judge asked the prosecution about the compensation, saying that although the bills were covered by the victim’s insurance and MediSave, MediSave is still considered the victim’s personal funds.
The prosecution then said the portion covered by MediSave was S$93.09, and the judge ordered this to be paid to the victim.
When he heard that Wong would not be paying the sum, he asked if he was not able to pay or not willing to pay.
A court officer told the judge that Wong was “just choosing” to serve the in-default jail term, which was one day’s jail.
For voluntarily causing hurt that turned out to be grievous, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined up to S$10,000, or both.
