Man who caused hurt with joss sticks jailed
When a cleaner didn’t take a few joss sticks from him, Robin Lim Kim Jui used the joss sticks to burn the victim. On another occasion, 58-year-old Lim assaulted a man out of anger with a ceramic mug for allegedly taking his cigarettes.
For the two charges of voluntarily causing hurt, Lim, who is unemployed, was on Thursday (13 April) sentenced to 10 weeks’ jail. His jail term was backdated to when he was remanded on 6 February.
The court heard that on 23 January this year, Lim was at Bedok Hawker Centre praying with joss sticks at an altar. The victim was 20-year-old Ruban Thevan Raman, who was working as a cleaner at the hawker centre.
After lighting the joss sticks, Lim tried to pass Ruban the joss sticks but Ruban refused to accept them. Ruban turned his back on Lim to continue cleaning, but Lim followed behind and poked Ruban’s lower back with the lit joss sticks.
Ruban, afraid that Lim would burn him again, pushed Lim away and left. As a result of the burning, Ruban sustained blisters on his lower back.
The court also heard that on 11 January this year, Lim was at a coffee shop at Block 915 Tampines Street when the other incident happened. Lim fell asleep at the coffee shop after leaving a packet of cigarettes on the table. He woke up close to an hour later to find that his cigarettes had gone missing.
When he went around the block, he saw 58-year-old Sim Suee Peng sitting at the void deck with a packet of cigarettes in his front shirt pocket. Thinking it was his, Lim confronted Sim, who denied taking his cigarettes.
In a fit of anger, Lim then took a ceramic mug from a nearby table and hit Sim on the head with it, causing Sim to bleed. As a result, Sim sustained a 3cm laceration on his left forehead.
Apart from the two charges, Lim had three other charges of public nuisance and disorderly behaviour taken into consideration. He has a string of previous offences, including drink driving, disorderly behaviour, and voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous means.
For each charge of voluntarily causing hurt, Lim could have been jailed up to two years and/or fined up to $5,000.
