Sadasivam Kannan, 61-years-old, pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt to a vulnerable person.
He was sentenced to 3 weeks imprisonment on 23 August.
2 other staff nurses were also charged for assaulting the patient, Muhammad Ihsan Mahmud, 32, and Iylia Muhammad Afiq Nor Effendi, 25.
What happened?
Sadasivam had assaulted an IMH patient because he was stressed and angered by his aggressive behavior.
The victim is a 59-year-old man who is suffering from chronic schizophrenia and had been a patient at IMH since 2005.
The victim was incapable of protecting himself because of his mental illness.
He was moved to a lounge area following a haircut and started playing with another patient’s urinal, splashing urine on an attending nurse.
Ihsan heard about what happened and he then used hand sanitiser to splash on the victim’s face.
The victim then caused a disturbance in the lounge, to which the trio then used 3 restraints on him.
The victim then became agitated and Ihsan then punched him in the face twice.
The victim continued being aggressive and kicked the nurses, the three accused then subdued him by holding him down.
Sadasivam was fixing the restraints onto the victim at the time, when the victim then kicked another patient.
This made Sadasivam very angry and he then slapped the back of his head, scolding him.
The victim started cowering and soon calmed down, and Sadasivam then continued trying to fix the restraints onto him.
The victim then rocked his head back and forth, putting his head near Sadasivam’s head, to which Sadasivam slapped the victim again.
Iylia is also being accused of slapping the victim on his back, neck and shoulder as well, multiple times.
He is also being accused of nearly causing the victim to fall off his wheelchair by tilting it forward and sideways.
CCTV footage of the incident was played in court.
Iylia later found that the victim suffered bruises around his right eye, and put an ice pack onto it.
He then made a report to IMH’s management about the injuries, resulting in a HR manager reporting the incident to the police.
The victim was then conveyed to SGH, where they found that he suffered a fractured toe, bruised eyes, jaw and toes.
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