Public Prosecutor v Ng Chee Tiong Tony

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Disa Sim
• Judgment Date: 15 May 2007
• Neutral Citation: [2007] SGMC 13
• Published date: 20 June 2007
• Court: Magistrates' Court (Singapore)
• Plaintiff Counsel: ASP Segathesan
• Defendant Counsel: Subhas Anandan and Sunil Sudheesan (Harry Elias Partnership)

15 May 2007

District Judge Disa Sim:

1 This is a case in which one incident of road rage spawned two separate criminal prosecutions. In the present case, the Accused Ng Chee Tiong, Tony (‘Ng’) was charged under s 323 of the Penal Code (Cap 224) for voluntarily causing hurt to one Serene Neo Chor Tin (‘Neo’) by punching her on her left eye. The charge (‘P1’) reads:

You, Ng Chee Tiong, Tony, Male/48 years old, NRIC No: S1289442B, D.O.B. 15/02/1958, are charged that you on or about the 22^nd day of December 2005 at or about 10.05pm at, Buyong Road Singapore, did voluntarily caused hurt [sic] to one Serene Neo Chor Tin, to wit, by punching the said Serene Neo Chor Tin on her left eye, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 323 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

2 Neo’s husband, Yanto Budiman Nur (‘Yanto’), is himself the subject of another prosecution for voluntarily causing hurt to Ng. Yanto’s lawyer, Mr Thangavelu, kept a watching brief throughout Ng’s trial.

3 As for Ng’s own legal representation, he was initially represented by Mr Peter Ong Lip Cheng from M/s Peter Ong and Raymond Tan. After the first day of trial on 25 September 2006, Ng discharged his lawyer and replaced him with Mr Subhas Anandan and Mr Sunil Sudheesan from Harry Elias Partnership.

4 At the end of the trial, I convicted Ng of the charge and sentenced him to six weeks’ imprisonment. Being dissatisfied with my decision, Ng has appealed against both his conviction and his sentence.

The Case for the Prosecution

5 The Prosecution called a total of six witnesses to the stand. The evidence of the prosecution witnesses are set out as below.

Testimony of PW1 – Yanto Budiman Nur (‘Yanto’)

6 Yanto is the husband of the complainant Neo. On 22 December 2005, at about 10.05 pm, Yanto was driving a Kangoo van along Penang Road, intending to turn right into Buyong Road. Yanto was accompanied by his wife Neo. Suddenly, a car travelling on the straight-going lane on Penang Road swerved into the same turning lane that Yanto was on. Yanto was not sure whether he sounded his horn in response, but said that he swerved to give way.

7 As both vehicles came to a stop at the traffic junction along Buyong Road, the driver of the car gestured at Yanto by raising both his hands into the air. Yanto returned the compliment. Yanto recalled seeing two people in the car, a driver and a female travelling companion.

8 The driver of the car alighted from the vehicle, and stood next to Neo’s window. The driver looked angry. Yanto identified the driver as the Accused Ng. Yanto alighted from his van and approached Ng to ask why he had cut into his lane. The two men exchanged words. Yanto recounted that he asked Ng, “Why did you cut into my lane?” Ng responded with, “If you know I cut your lane, why did you not stay away?” Throughout the altercation, Neo remained seated in the van, strapped in by her seat belt.

9 After the altercation, Yanto walked back towards his van but Ng shouted vulgarities at him. This was when Neo wound down her window to shout at Ng, “Why don’t you shut up instead?” Ng took a swing at Neo and punched her in her left eye. Neo screamed in pain and began crying. Yanto was not able to describe the exact manner in which Ng punched Neo because he was getting into his vehicle at that point in time. [note: 1]

10 Yanto testified that he rushed towards Ng to try to restrain him from doing more harm to Neo. During the scuffle, Ng kicked Yanto’s legs and Yanto used his right wrist to punch him. Yanto eventually managed to force Ng back into his car seat. At this point, the traffic lights at Buyong Road had turned green and everyone was honking. Ng drove off. Neo managed to note Ng’s car licence plate number.

11 Yanto and his wife called the police. They declined ambulance assistance. The couple proceeded to the Neighbourhood Police Centre at Killiney Road to lodge a police report, after which they sought treatment at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (‘TTSH’) for Neo’s eye. The couple left the hospital in the wee hours of the morning.

12 In cross-examination, Yanto denied that he had been drunk on the evening of 22 December or that he had been the aggressor throughout the incident.

Testimony of PW2 – Police Staff Sergeant Yussri Bin Abdul Hamid (‘IO Yussri’)

13 Police Staff Sergeant Yussri was the investigation officer of the case. IO Yussri testified that on the night in question, the police received a telephone call from the complainant Neo. As the Accused Ng had already left the scene, the police directed Neo to proceed to the nearest police station make a police report.

14 Neo lodged a first information report at the Orchard Neighbourhood Police Centre on 22 December 2005 at 11.21 pm (Exhibit P3). Neo was accompanied by her husband, Yanto. According to IO Yussri, there was nothing in the electronic station diary to suggest that Yanto was under the influence of alcohol that evening. Although the station diary was never adduced in evidence, defence counsel expressly stated that he did not dispute the reliability of its contents.[note: 2]

15 IO Yussri testified that he had received medical reports on Neo’s injuries from one Dr Vivian Siu and one Dr Rajagopalan Rajesh. Dr Siu’s medical report (Exhibit P4) and Conditioned Statement (Exhibit P5) were admitted and marked into evidence without objection from defence counsel, as were Dr Rajagopalan’s medical report (Exhibit P6) and Conditioned Statement (Exhibit P7).

16 As for Ng’s side of the story, IO Yussri testified that he recorded a statement from Ng five days later on 27 December 2005. Ng denied that he had punched the complainant Neo and alleged that her husband had punched him. Investigations showed that Ng did not seek any medical attention for his injuries.

17 IO Yussri also informed the court that the police received a call two days after the incident from one Lim Lai Kuan (‘Lim’), who reported that she had witnessed the entire incident at Buyong Road. IO Yussri made an appointment with her to record her statement. Lim was not called as a witness during the trial. The Prosecution explained that it was not practicable to request for Lim’s attendance because she worked in Australia as a teacher.

18 During the interval between the first and second tranche of the trial, IO Yussri e-mailed Lim to ask if he could provide defence counsel with her contact details. Lim’s resistance was clear. In an e-mail response to IO Yussri on 10 November 2006, Lim wrote:

No. I do not wish for the defence counsel to have my details. My identity should be protected, shouldn’t it? Doesn’t the Singapore Police have a duty of care to protect witnesses who volunteer information?

19 Mr Subhas was informed of Lim’s concerns when the trial resumed on 13 November 2006. Mr Subhas observed that it was “quite clear” that Lim did not want to be involved, and did not contend that the Prosecution should nevertheless still offer the witness to the defence.[note: 3] There the matter rested until the time came for written submissions (see infra, paras 71-72).

Testimony of PW3 – Serene Neo Chor Tin (‘Neo’)

20 Neo testified that she had no driving experience. On the night in question, Neo testified that her husband Yanto was driving along Penang Road on either the extreme-left turning lane or the one in the centre. A photograph of Penang Road was admitted and marked as exhibit P8. Yanto intended to turn right into Buyong Road when a black car cut into their lane from the left and came very close to the passenger side of the van.

21 Yanto swerved slightly to their right and came to a stop at Buyong Road with the black car on their left. The couple looked over at the driver of the car, who gestured with one or both his hands as if to say, “What?” Yanto returned the gesture, as if to also say “what”. Neo identified the driver of the car as the Accused Ng. Neo remembered seeing one female passenger seated in Ng’s car.

22 Ng opened his car door and alighted first. Yanto got out of his van as well. Neo wound down her window with the intention of asking her husband to return to the vehicle, as well as to ask the Defendant what he was doing.[note: 4] She did not manage to do so. The two men proceeded to a spot in between the two car bonnets and exchanged words. Neo remained seated in the passenger seat of the vehicle and could not hear what was being said. After a while, Yanto turned round to return to his vehicle. This was when Ng shouted the words “fuck you” at Yanto. Neo’s response was to shout, “Why don’t you shut up”. Ng put his hand through the open window and landed one punch on Neo’s left eye. Neo covered her face and started crying.

23 Neo testified that her husband was standing near the front of the van when she was punched. When she next looked up, her husband was engaged in a scuffle with Ng. Yanto was standing outside Ng’s open car door, while Ng stood on the inside. Yanto was trying to restrain Ng from hitting Neo again. Yanto eventually managed to force Ng back into his car seat, with his legs sticking out of the car. She did not remember if Yanto hit Ng.

24 Neo testified that the traffic light then turned green and that Ng drove off. Neo managed to memorise Ng’s licence plate number as “SC?6766R”. Neo called the police, and was advised to make her way to a police station to make a police report. After lodging a police report at the Orchard Neighbourhood Police Centre (Exhibit P3), Neo proceeded to TTSH with her husband to seek medical attention for her eye.

25 Neo testified that she was treated by two female doctors and one Indian doctor at TTSH. As for the nature of her injuries, Neo testified that the area around her left eye felt tender and that her eye was swollen. As far as she could recall, she did not suffer from any pain in her neck and shoulders.[note: 5] Neo said that she did not look at her injury until she was examined by the first or second doctor.[note: 6] She explained that this was...