Man who stalked fiancee's mother, punched friend jailed 15 months
A man who stalked his fiancee’s mother, whom he had blamed for his relationship troubles, was jailed on Tuesday (22 May).
The 28-year-old man had pleaded guilty in the State Courts to one charge of stalking and a separate charge of causing grievous hurt to his friend. For both acts, he was jailed a total of 15 months.
Four other charges – for acts including criminal intimidation and sending obscene images – were taken into consideration. All parties in the case cannot be named.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Chua said in court that the man had stalked the 51-year-old woman from 1 February and 26 February last year.
Sometime before that, the man had found himself unable to contact his fiancee, who was then his girlfriend. Believing his girlfriend’s mother to be responsible for the couple’s relationship troubles he began sending her insulting and threatening text messages in an attempt get his girlfriend to contact him.
On 13 February, his girlfriend broke up with him and soon after that her mother blocked his contact number on her phone.
The man then asked his 17-year-old cousin to send the older woman threatening text messages as well as a pornographic video. By then the mother had made a police report about the harassment.
Undeterred, the man and his cousin visited the mother’s house at about 6pm on 26 February. The man then had his cousin show the mother a nude photo of the man and girlfriend.
DPP Chua, who sought a month’s jail for the man over the stalking charge, said that the mother had been harassed to the point that she was afraid to leave her home.
The man’s defence lawyer Dhillon Surinder Singh said that the mother had gotten in the way of the couple’s relationship and that the man’s resulting frustration had “led him to do stupid things”. He noted that the couple had since patched up the relationship and are currently engaged.
Singah added that the fiancee had also made several attempts to have the charges against the man dropped.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur agreed with the DPP’s suggestion of a month’s jail saying that the man’s actions had been “egregious” while noting that the stalking had gone on for a month.
For the second charge of hurting his friend, DPP Chua asked for a jail term of at least 12 months.
According to court documents, the man had met his childhood friend for drinks near Yio Chu Kang Garden on the night of 30 September 2016. At some point a dispute between the two arose, which then escalated into a physical fight.
The man punched his friend multiple times on the face, causing fractures near the bridge of his nose. The victim was later given outpatient treatment at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
Judge Kaur sentenced the man to 14 months’ jail for the assault, noting that he had punched the victim multiple times and had also served a seven-month jail term in 2016 for a similar offence.
For causing grievous hurt, the man could have been jailed up to 10 years, fined and/or caned. For stalking, he could have been fined up to $5,000, jailed up to 12 months, or both.
