Drunken man at birthday bash gets jail for rash act

Sebastian Siua Yun Sian assaulted relatives of a woman celebrating her birthday, and abused police officers when they arrived.
Sebastian Siua Yun Sian assaulted relatives of a woman celebrating her birthday, and abused police officers when they arrived. ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

A drunken party-goer shouted obscenities, threw food around and assaulted relatives of a woman celebrating her birthday before verbally abusing police officers who turned up to arrest him.

Sebastian Siua Yun Sian, 26, was sentenced to five weeks' jail yesterday. He pleaded guilty to one count each of committing a rash act, using criminal force on a police officer and verbally abusing a second officer.

Siua, who is jobless, went to a Figaro Street house near Jalan Ulu Siglap to attend the party between 8pm and 9pm on Sept 30, 2016.

The host, who was celebrating her 21st birthday, noticed that he was slightly intoxicated.

As the night progressed, Siua drank more alcohol and kept on asking her to drink red wine.

He later became agitated and shouted profanities before hurling food and drinks onto the floor. Court papers did not mention what triggered his behaviour.

Alarmed, the host's mother called her husband and son for help and they turned up around midnight.

Siua refused to budge when asked to leave and the police were called when he became increasingly agitated. Before the police arrived, he picked up a glass bottle and hurled it at the host's father, but missed.

Police officers, including Sergeant Muhammad Luqman Hakim Azman, 23, and Sergeant Ho Chuan San, 24, arrived at the house minutes later and met Siua at the porch.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Houston Johannus said: "At about 12.33am, Sgt Ho advised the accused to calm down. The accused chose not to cooperate... and instead used his left palm to push Sgt Ho once on his left shoulder. The accused then tried to re-enter the living room but was subsequently arrested."

A video clip of the incident was played in court and it showed Siua yelling obscenities at the officers, challenging them to hit him.

His tirade did not stop even while he was in the police car. He verbally abused Sgt Luqman with vulgarities and religiously charged insults.

"These words were especially insulting to Sgt Luqman as he is a Muslim," said DPP Johannus, who urged District Judge Brenda Tan to jail Siua for at least six weeks. Two assault charges and one count each of using criminal force on the birthday girl's brother and a second charge of verbally abusing a policeman were considered during sentencing.

Siua is now out on bail and must surrender at the State Courts on Feb 1 to begin his sentence.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 26, 2018, with the headline Drunken man at birthday bash gets jail for rash act. Subscribe