SINGAPORE: A woman was fined S$4,000 (US$3,100) by a district court on Tuesday (Aug 5) for kicking another woman on an MRT train in a dispute over seats.
Endon Abu Bakar, a 47-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty to a charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a 66-year-old Singaporean woman.
The court heard that the victim boarded the East West Line at Clementi MRT station at about 10.30am on Dec 5 last year.
She sat and placed her bag on the seat beside her, as it was not occupied at the time.
At about 11am, Endon boarded the same train at Paya Lebar MRT station.
As she sat, the victim felt that Endon had sat down forcefully, hitting her bag in the process.
Endon, in turn, had seen that the seat was not taken by anyone and felt that the plastic bag should not be placed there.
The victim told Endon that she should have asked her to move the bag.
A dispute then ensued.
Endon pointed her mobile phone at the victim.
At this, the victim smiled, made a peace sign and took out her own phone and pointed it at Endon, the prosecutor said.
This angered Endon, who snatched the victim’s phone. The victim stood up and tried to grab it back.
In response, Endon used her right leg and kicked the victim once in the abdomen, intending to hurt her.
The confrontation came to an end when another passenger pressed the emergency button and the train stopped at Tanah Merah station, where a staff member interviewed the two women.
After this, the victim felt pain in her abdominal area and sought medical attention while complaining of a headache.
She was found to be alert, comfortable and able to walk steadily, the prosecutor said.
After a check, a doctor concluded that the pain was consistent with a bruise to the abdominal area, along with minor soft tissue injury consistent with being kicked in the abdomen.
The victim did not require hospitalisation and declined medical leave.
The prosecutor left the sentence to the court, noting only that Endon had been sentenced to probation before.
Endon tendered a written mitigation letter that was not read out in open court.
In response to questions from District Judge Koo Zhi Xuan, she said she was a librarian earning about S$2,500 a month in basic pay.
The judge said that this was a “borderline case” where he could impose jail, but he would be giving a fine since Endon did not have any relevant past convictions.
He also said that the harm caused was “not so severe” and was not in a vulnerable part of the body.
“I’m prepared to impose a fine but it will be a high fine because this happened in an MRT train (and) caused disturbance … to others,” he added.
He noted that the commotion caused the emergency button to be pressed and “the accused clearly appears to be the more aggressive party in this matter”.
They discussed how much she could pay upfront, with Endon asking what the minimum sum was because “I have a lot of instalments”. She added that this month, she was paying S$1,200 to “HDB”, using the common term for the public housing authority.
“You have all these difficulties in your life, I understand,” the judge said. “Then you shouldn’t have committed this offence.”
He allowed Endon to pay S$500 on Tuesday and to pay the rest in seven instalments of S$500 each.
For voluntarily causing hurt, she could have been jailed for up to three years or fined up to S$5,000, or both.
