Man in assault case gets extra 3½ years' jail after reoffending while on bail

Ong Hock Chye, 50, pleaded guilty earlier this year to offences including rioting committed while out on bail.
Ong was given 5½ years' jail and six strokes of the cane last year over his role in the 2016 assault of Mr Joshua Koh Kian Yong (left), who was then dating Ms Audrey Chen Ying Fang.

A mover, who was sentenced to 5 ½ years' jail and six strokes of the cane last year over his role in the assault of a beauty queen's lover, will be spending an additional 3 ½ years behind bars after he reoffended while on bail.

Ong Hock Chye, now 50, will be serving his latest sentence after completing his earlier one.

He had pleaded guilty earlier this year to offences including one count of rioting. A district court heard yesterday that he can no longer be caned due to his age.

Ong was the middleman in the attack on banquet waiter Joshua Koh Kian Yong, then 35, in 2016.

Mr Koh was then dating 27-year-old Audrey Chen Ying Fang, who won the Miss Mermaid beauty pageant that year and was also the mistress of married businessman Lim Hong Liang at the time.

Lim Hong Liang wanted his nephew Ron Lim De Mai, then 26, to "teach Joshua a lesson".

Ron Lim roped in Ong to recruit others to carry out the task.

On April 30, 2016, Mr Koh was having supper with Ms Chen at Huay Kwang Thai Kitchen in Townshend Road near Little India when a group of men ambushed him.

He was punched in the head and as he tried to run, he was slashed with a penknife on his arm and face. Mr Koh was left with a facial scar that is likely to be permanent.

Ron Lim was sentenced to three years' jail with four strokes of the cane in 2018.

His uncle and Ong were found guilty in April last year of their roles in the attack. The following month, Lim Hong Liang, then 55, was sentenced to six years' jail, while Ong was sentenced to 5 ½ years' jail and six strokes of the cane.

Ong was later released on bail as he intended to appeal against District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt's decision. His appeal has since been dismissed.

While out on bail, Ong committed rioting with five other men at a Keong Saik Road restaurant near Chinatown on Jan 14 this year.

The court heard that Ong's friend Lock Soh Hock, 71, had a dispute with Mr Koh Teck Soon, 41, at around 3pm that day. Lock called Ong and said he had been beaten up.

Ong agreed to help Lock and roped in four other men. The six men later confronted Mr Koh Teck Soon at the restaurant and assaulted him.

The outcome of the cases involving Ong's accomplices were not stated in court documents.

Offenders convicted of rioting can be jailed for up to seven years and caned.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 20, 2020, with the headline Man in assault case gets extra 3½ years' jail after reoffending while on bail. Subscribe