Advertisement

2 men sentenced in fight at Bedok North over staring incident

A screengrab of a video of the incident. (PHOTO: YouTube/Singapore News)
A screengrab of a video of the incident. (PHOTO: YouTube/Singapore News)

SINGAPORE — Two men who were involved in a fight at Fengshan Centre last August were sentenced in court on Monday (28 June).

Peh Kok Yong, 44, was fined $1,500 while Roger Lian Yong Hong, 40, was handed a jail term of two weeks and five days over the incident at Bedok North Street 4. Both men are colleagues.

A video recording of the fight on the night of 28 August last year was circulated online.

Another man who was involved in the fight, Jovi Neo Kok Sian, was also charged but has not been dealt with by the court.

Lian pleaded guilty to one count each of affray and causing hurt, while Peh pleaded guilty to a single charge of affray.

On 28 August last year, at around 10pm, Neo and his wife were searching for a vacant seat at a hawker centre at Block 85 Bedok North Street 4.

Peh, Lian, and five others were also having dinner and drinking alcohol at the hawker centre. Both Peh and Lian were intoxicated.

Lian noticed that Neo was looking at him. He became unhappy over the way Neo was staring at him.

He walked over to where Neo and his wife were at and intentionally coughed in front of them, asking them in Hokkien “kua simi?”, meaning “what are you looking at?”.

As Neo and his wife walked towards the carpark at the back of the hawker centre, intending to find another place to dine, Lian approached them again and confronted Neo.

A verbal dispute ensued with Lian and Neo repeating “kua simi” to each other at the back of the hawker centre.

At one point, Lian’s phone rang and he answered the call. After the call, Peh arrived at the scene and moved aggressively towards Neo.

Lian grabbed Neo by the front of his shirt. In response, Neo punched Peh in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. Peh and Lian attacked Neo, chasing after him when he tried to flee.

The fight came to an end when Lian noticed that Neo's wife had been recording the incident on her mobile phone from a distance. He punched her on the face, causing her to fall, and kicked her right leg. She had abrasions from the incident.

Neo sought medical attention and was diagnosed with superficial injuries as well as a finger fracture.

Lian was diagnosed to have a nose and finger fracture while Peh had a suspected nose fracture.

In mitigation, Peh, who had no lawyer, said he was the sole breadwinner of his family and had to support two children.

Lian's lawyer Favian Kang said that his client recognised he should have kept his emotions in check. Lian had been going through a "tough time" at the time and was stressed over marital problems due to his son's autism.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

More Singapore stories:

Singapore confirms 9 new COVID-19 cases; 4 in community

COVID guidelines for larger settings such as dine-in on track: Lawrence Wong

No cases of COVID Delta plus variant found in Singapore: MOH

All 5 cases in ICU unvaccinated; 'long COVID' in Singapore being studied