Singapore: A few days after going to the clinic to confirm that his girlfriend was nine weeks pregnant, a man had an argument with her while discussing pregnancy and attacked her abdomen.
On Monday (October 25), 24-year-old Shawn Tan Jia Jun was fined S$3,500 after pleading guilty to a crime of voluntary injuring.
The fetus was fine after the attack, but his girlfriend later miscarried. The court was informed that the couple planned to get married before the end of the year, and the judge believed that this proved the victim’s forgiveness to the defendant.
The court learned that Tan and his 24-year-old girlfriend went to a clinic on July 10 last year for a pregnancy test.
The doctor told them that the victim had been pregnant for nine weeks and asked her if she wanted to continue her pregnancy or if she had a miscarriage. She was told to make a decision before July 17 because of the risk of further medical complications.
On July 14, the victim visited Tan and stayed overnight. The next day, they had a dispute while discussing pregnancy. Tan and the victim yelled at each other. Tan pushed the victim onto the bed, then punched and kicked her in the abdomen many times.
The commotion was heard by Tan’s mother, and she stopped arguing. The victim then called a friend who accompanied her out of the apartment.
Later that day, the victim sought treatment in the emergency department of a hospital with facial pain and bruises on his limbs. She was diagnosed with facial bruises and facial redness, and was later discharged from the hospital on sick leave.
A bedside ultrasound performed on the victim revealed an active heartbeat in the fetus.
The victim reported the assault to the police, but later tried to withdraw the charges.
The situation surrounding the natio
Defence Cites Circumstances Surrounding Incident
Defense lawyer Terence Yeo demanded a fine on the grounds that the victim was “minorly injured”, the quarrel was short in duration, and the circumstances of the incident.
Speaking of “the elephant in the room,” he said that the victim had aborted the baby. He said that this is not a situation where his client has a clear intention to harm or harm the victim.
The judge pointed out that the victim’s intention to marry the defendant before the end of the year was the “most obvious form of forgiveness.”
She agreed with the prosecutor that these actions would not only harm the victim, but also the unborn baby, but pointed out that this was Tan’s first crime and there were “some mitigating factors”.
The judge said: “Yes, this is a family dispute, but it may be due to pregnancy and a decision must be made within a short period of time.”
“For me, what stands out is that the victim may indeed accept the fact that he didn’t intentionally harm her in a malicious sense…It was spontaneously generated during the dispute,” she added.
For voluntarily causing injury, Chen Ke was sentenced to up to three years in prison, a fine of up to S$5,000, or both.
