According to a media release, a doctor who repeatedly assaulted his ex-girlfriend was sentenced to 3.5 years of jail with 4 strokes of the cane.
Clarence Teo Shun Jie, 35-year-old, was found guilty in March of locking up his ex-girlfriend and physically abused her when she refused to have sex with him. The doctor claimed that he was drunk when the incident happened and he couldn’t recall anything that happened on the day.
The incident happened between Mar 2017 to Aug 2017, the pair met on a dating application Coffee Meets Bagel 1 month before the incident.
On 12 Mar 2017, the accuse was drunk when he bought up the past relationship of the victim. He started yelling at her before punching her in the face, causing her to bite down her own cheek and bleed from her mouth.
When the victim tried to leave, the accuse continues to punch her while he asks her about her past relationship. She was only able to leave after the accuse calm down, he then apologised to her and admitted to her that he had anger management issue. The victim accepted his apology and continued to go out with him.
On 29 Mar 2017, the victim wanted to end her relationship with the accuse. Initially, she ignored all his calls and text messages and found out that the accuse was waiting for her under her block. When the accuse spotted the victim, he dragged her into his car and punched her when the victim tried to fight back. The accuse then drove to his place and locked the victim in the bedroom. While in his flat, the accuse turned on the air conditioner of the bedroom and poured apple juice on the victim. The victim requested to go to a doctor to excuse herself from work. The accuse refuses at first but he let her go after seeing the injuries the victim sustained on her face.
In Aug 2017, after the couple went out for dinner and drinks the accuse requested to have sex with the victim upon returning home. When he was refused by the victim, he then locked the victim and himself in his bedroom before assaulting the victim. He repeated punched the victim and even smashed her head into the wall.
The victim was only saved after the accuse’s father alerted the police at 4 am.
During his trial, the accuse states that he is suffering from a personality disorder, he has anger management issue and he was under the influence of the alcohol when the incident happened.
The defendant lawyer then urged the court to take in consideration that his client has alcohol disorder and asked if caning is required for this case. However, the prosecutor argued that alcohol influence was not mitigating factors, but was aggravating factors instead.
According to the law, for voluntarily causing grievous hurt the accuse could face a could a jail term for up to 10 years and fined or caned. For wrongful confinement, the accuse could face a jail term for up to 1 year, fined up to $3,000, or both.