One man gets stuck in a washroom, one man starts fighting him moments later.
At least that’s what happened in a coffee shop in Beach Road which caused 60-year-old Yieh Kan Wah 12 weeks’ jail on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022.
His charges were for one count of voluntarily causing hurt, and another two charges were taken into consideration.
Yieh’s initial intention was to break up a fight that was starting when he was having dinner with some friends – but he ended up getting involved.
The victim was also there with friends when he went to use the washroom but found himself locked in by accident for 20 minutes.
When he was let out, he was unhappy with the coffee shop owner and had a word with him. Yieh who was nearby tried to mediate the victim but they ended up fighting.
By the time someone separated the two, Yieh had punched the victim’s face twice and caused his nose to bleed. Still, Yieh continued to advance towards him, even picking up a glass beer bottle along the way.
While the two were still getting held back, Yieh had retreated and dropped the bottle but then the victim started to approach him.
Yieh then picked up a shard from the broken bottle, intending to hurt him. The victim lurched forward and the glass shard left a 7cm laceration on the face. The two resumed fighting even after the cut.
The victim was sent to the hospital with bruises and multiple facial lacerations that required surgery. The hospital bill came up to S$968.65 – and Yieh paid S$970 as compensation.
The prosecutor had initially asked for 16 weeks of jail, stating that Yieh had used dangerous means to harm the victim and aimed at a vulnerable part of his body.
However, it was taken into account that the victim – who is bigger than Yieh – was also aggressive and at that time was shouting Hokkien vulgarities targeting his mother when Yieh first approached him to calm down.
The defence lawyer also added that Yieh had to dip into his “depleted” savings to compensate the victim.
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