4+ months’ jail for man who locked pregnant wife at home in drunken rage

SINGAPORE: A man who abused his wife, including locking her in their home in 2023 when she was pregnant, was given a jail sentence of more than four months. Before this incident, the wife had filed a number of reports with the police within several months.

A report in Shin Min Daily News showed that the 29-year-old man committed other offences aside from the abuse of his wife and said he faced nine charges in all. These included voluntarily causing hurt, violations under the Protection from Harassment Act, and theft.

On Saturday (Nov 22), he pleaded guilty to five of those charges, and the other four were taken into consideration. For all his offences, he was given a jail term of four months, eight weeks, and three days.

The locking-up incident

In the early morning hours of Aug 2, 2023, the man came home after having two cans of beer. When he arrived, he and his pregnant wife got into a fight.

According to Shin Min Daily News, the argument intensified when the husband flew into a rage over his wife having called the police earlier, which he considered a trivial matter. In his anger, he verbally abused her and kicked the bedroom door.

He then went to sleep. A few hours later, after waking up, he entered the room where his wife was resting, where their two children were also present. He resumed shouting at her about the same issue and pulled her hair. This prompted the wife to call the police again.

Her husband, however, locked her in the house, using a padlock so that she would not be able to leave.

When the Police arrived shortly before 9:00 a.m., they broke the lock to let her out. Her husband was arrested on the same day.

However, on another occasion when he was drunk, he showed violent behaviour toward his wife. On Dec 6, he threw a phone case at her, and on Dec 25, he got into another argument with her and slapped her. This led her to call the Police yet again.

The court heard that the man also sold his Singpass credentials to a moneylender in 2022 for S$1,500, even when he knew this was against the law. His credentials were later used by a crime syndicate to open two bank accounts, receiving S$35,000 in criminal proceeds. /TISG

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