Former actor Huang Yi Liang claims trial; says employee treated him as father, allowed violence
SINGAPORE — Former Mediacorp actor Huang Yi Liang claimed trial to one charge of assaulting his employee, a Bangladeshi worker, on Monday (27 July), alleging that the victim treated him as a father and allowed Huang to be violent towards him.
Huang, whose registered name is Ng Aik Leong, is denying the charge of causing hurt to the worker, Jahidul (he goes by a single name), using a metal scraper with a wooden handle at the Singapore Islamic Hub at about 4.20pm on 11 December 2018. Huang was unrepresented in court and spoke through a Mandarin interpreter. A separate charge involving affray, or fighting in public, will be dealt with at a later stage.
As of November 2019, Huang was listed as a director of three companies, all of which have a registered address at 662 Buffalo Road.
According to the 59-year-old’s charge sheet, he is accused of scratching Jahidul twice on his abdomen and hitting him on the head with the metal scraper.
On Monday, three witnesses took the stand. These are a security officer who first saw Jahidul after the alleged incident and two police officers who responded to a call for assistance at about 4.30pm on the day of the incident.
The prosecution told the court that Jahidul will only be testifying in the next tranche of the trial as he is currently isolated in a foreign worker dormitory.
A police officer who interviewed Jahidul after the alleged incident testified that the worker said he had been working on the vents at the back of the canteen stalls at the Singapore Islamic Hub when his employer, Huang, scolded him and hit him with a metal scraper. The victim was allegedly struck on his left abdomen and head after the scraper was thrusted at him.
The police officer added that the victim claimed to have tried to take a photo of the abuse but later tried to escape after a scuffle broke out.
“As he was afraid of his boss, he did not run away but went back to his boss,” said the officer. Testifying to the victim’s demeanour, the police officer said that Jahidul seemed to be “in distress” and “teary-eyed”, looking as if he was afraid of Huang.
Another witness, a security officer at the Islamic Hub said that he had gone to level two of the building to investigate a commotion when he saw Jahidul at the entrance of the canteen.
Jahidul claimed in a “crying tone” that he had been injured by his employer with a working tool. He then allegedly showed the security officer his injuries on his head, abdomen and elbow.
Huang, who was also at the scene, tried to intervene but the security officer could not understand him and asked him to “go away”. The police were then called in.
Cross-examining the security officer, Huang claimed that he had told the man that Jahidul kept asking Huang to beat and discipline him. The witness said he could not recall the detail.
Huang then asked, “This worker kept touching his head, very painful, (but) not proportionate to his injuries. His injuries were not that serious but the pain he displayed appeared to be 100 times his injuries. He was acting, do you recall?”
The witness replied that he could not answer the question as he was not a medical officer.
Victim treated me as a father and good teacher: Huang
Huang then accused Jahidul of trying to frame him by exaggerating the pain.
A second police officer who took the stand said that when he interviewed Huang after the incident, Huang had initially told him that no assault had taken place.
However, Huang later claimed that a scuffle had taken place, after Jahidul allegedly kept wrongly tying a raffia string on a pail.
Huang told the officer that he tried to push the pail towards the victim and insisted that he tie the raffia string in front of him. What followed then was a “push and pull” over the pail.
The officer said, “He mentioned that the victim treated him as a father and allowed him to use violence on him. This was what he just told me. My impression was his facts were very inconsistent.” The officer added that when he first asked Huang if there was any assault, the latter had said that no assault took place but subsequently said that there was a scuffle.
The officer added that Huang had denied using using the metal scraper to assault the victim.
Cross examining the same police officer, Huang told the court that the worker always described him as a good boss.
“‘I treat you as a father, as a good teacher, I allow you to hammer me as I learn things so slow’, this was what he often said to me,” he testified.
Huang also alleged that Jahidul had “acted” as if he was very scared of him.
Huang pointed out that while the victim had indicated that his injury was at the front of his stomach, a picture taken later on showed an injury on the left side of his torso. Huang also lifted his shirt in court to make his point.
The trial will resume on Monday afternoon.
If convicted on the charge, Huang faces a jail term of up to seven years, with caning or with a fine, or any combination of the punishments.
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