Andy Koh Ju Hua, 30-years-old, pleaded guilty to four counts of voluntarily causing hurt, one of which is under the newly enhanced provisions for victims in close relationships with the accused.
Koh started abusing his elderly mother in 2017 because he was stressed with school work.
He reportedly starved her and didn’t allow her to shower to make noise, as well as assaulting her vaginal area with a metal padlock and with his knee.
During the early years of the abuse, his mother refused to file a police report because she didn’t want to jeopardise her son’s future.
She was hospitalised thrice and put in a safe house but each time, she would insist on returning to her family.
Once, after Koh used his kneecap to hit his mother’s vaginal area, she was found by her niece in an unkempt state and her niece wanted to call the police, but the victim told her not to do so, also lying to the hospital staff that she fell down, in order not to implicate her son.
In December 2018, Koh used a metal padlock to hit his mother’s vaginal area, before hitting her face with his hands, at their family home.
She was found with swelling on her body and her gown was bloodied over the vaginal area.
His mother didn’t retaliate and just let him take out his frustrations on her.
In June last year, Koh punched his mother in the mouth thrice, causing her to bleed, resulting in her running out of the house out of desperation.
His mother went to her relatives for helped, and they described seeing her as very dirty, frail, thin and sunken.
Koh shed a few tears in court as he said:
“I love my mother a lot and I do not know why I committed all those silly things to her. I need to undergo treatment to overcome my psychotic disorder, I hope to undergo treatment and cure myself so that I can live happily ever after with my mother. She is not young anymore and I certainly wish to take care of her in her remaining days.”
The case has been adjourned to a later date.