Man jailed three months for scalding neighbour
[video=youtube;YeRyRwOPfo8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeRyRwOPfo8[/video]
Elena Chong
Friday, Jan 8, 2016
A man landed behind bars for three months yesterday for splashing a mug of hot oil and water at his neighbour after a quarrel.
Kho Ah Yeow, 59, admitted to hurting Bounty Gill, also 59, with a heated substance along the corridor on the sixth floor of an HDB block in Jalan Bukit Merah at about 2.40pm on June 25 last year.
Gill had to be hospitalised. Kho too was hospitalised after being allegedly stabbed by Gill with a knife. Gill has been charged and his case is pending.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Michelle Lu told the court that Kho had left his unit to buy lunch that day when he saw Gill along the corridor.
He confronted Gill as to why the latter had knocked on his door many times in the morning but the other man denied this.
A quarrel broke out and the duo were heard shouting at each other. A neighbour heard the commotion and called the police.
Meanwhile, Kho returned to his unit and took a metal mug containing hot oil and water left over from the fishball noodle soup that he had consumed earlier.
He approached Gill and splashed the liquid on his face and body.
Gill shouted in pain, went home to get a knife and allegedly stabbed Kho in his abdomen a few times.
Gill suffered mild erythema (redness of the skin) on the left side of his face, scattered blisters on his neck and left foot, and a mild second-degree burn area over the left chest region. He was discharged from hospital two days later.
Kho, who had no lawyer, told District Judge Mathew Joseph in mitigation that he was in hospital for one month and that his injuries were more severe than the victim's.
The judge said that even though Kho suffered injuries, he was the instigator of the offence, and there was no excuse for what he did.
He backdated Kho's sentence to Nov 19, the date when he was remanded. Kho could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.
