Man fined for spreading wrong woman's details in hit-and-run case that injured dog
SINGAPORE — A man who wrongly identified and spread the details of a driver who supposedly ran over a shelter dog at Pasir Ris Farmway was fined $1,400 on Tuesday (7 January) in a case of vigilante justice gone wrong.
Mark Lin Youcheng’s act of posting Soon Kim Choo’s personal details online caused the woman to receive numerous harassment calls and messages from anonymous persons who assumed that she was the driver of the car.
The 27-year-old freelance dog trainer pleaded guilty to one count of making an abusive communication on Facebook, causing Soon, 41, harassment. His actions also constitute a breach of the Protection from Harassment Act
Lin is also a co-founder and director of the Society for Animal Matters, a volunteer organisation of animal welfare activists.
Another charge of making a threatening communication on Facebook to cause harassment to Soon, by posting the text “Please manage your atrocious and cruel employee or the public will” on the Facebook page of “Huttons Asia” on 24 October 2016, was taken into consideration for sentencing.
Facts of the case
The case arose over a widely-shared Facebook post by Animal Lovers League, which said that a dog had been run over by a black Honda driven by a Chinese woman at Pasir Ris Farmway on 23 October 2016. It also alleged that two witnesses had asked her to stop and help them with the injured dog.
The driver allegedly responded, "F*** you. It's only a dog," and drove off.
The post was shared by online platforms such as The Independent and Stomp.
Lin saw the Facebook post and responded the next day, posting a comment with the text “IDENTITY FOUND” and a screenshot with Soon’s NRIC number, name, address, vehicle number and vehicle model. He had obtained the screenshot by someone else.
The next morning, Lin replied to the comment with the words, “Give her hell”.
In fact, the car had not been driven by Soon, but by 52-year-old Alice Chong Say Kiaw. She also filed a police report.
After Soon’s personal information was disseminated, she received multiple harassing messages and calls from unknown persons. Soon lodged a police report on 25 October 2016 stating that Lin had posted untruths about her on Facebook.
She has since taken Lin to court in a civil suit and was paid $12,500 in compensation.
Lin also posted an apology on his Facebook page on 4 February last year, stating that he had posted comments on Facebook wrongly suggesting that Soo was responsible for running over the shelter dog.
“I should not have made those statements without accurately verifying if she was at the wheel at the time. I will leave the investigation of the incident to the regulatory authorities. I apologise for my actions and for the hurt and loss suffered by Ms Soon Kim Choo,” he stated in the post.
Lin’s lawyer Joel Ng sought a $500 fine for his client, whom he said had committed the offence out of a love for animals.
Lin has since recanted his comment and has paid for his offence, the lawyer said.
For making a threatening communication, Lin could have been fined up to $5,000.
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