SINGAPORE – A part-time hawker had a personal protection order (PPO) issued against him in January 2023 after he was caught on video repeatedly slapping and pinching his senile elderly mother.

Despite this, Chua Geok Guan continued abusing the 87-year-old woman seven months later, committing acts such as grabbing her left arm and pinching her ears.

Chua, 59, was sentenced to four weeks’ jail on April 2 after he pleaded guilty to one count each of using criminal force on his mother and breaching the PPO by being violent towards her.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Benjamin Low said: “The accused, on multiple occasions, violently assaulted and employed force on his own elderly mother, a vulnerable victim.

“The manner in which he chose to carry out his attacks was cruel, unprovoked and wholly unjustifiable.”

At the time of the offences, Chua was living in a Jurong flat with his mother and 29-year-old nephew, who is her grandson.

According to the younger man, Chua had verbally abused the victim since 2008.

A closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera was installed in the flat in 2022.

On Nov 30, 2022, Chua came home drunk and began scolding his mother. Between 8.39pm and 8.44pm, he committed acts such as slapping her face and pinching her ears.

His nephew later viewed the CCTV footage and found that Chua had been hitting the victim whenever the younger man was not at home.

The nephew alerted the police in January 2023 and Chua’s brother applied for a PPO against Chua on the victim’s behalf. The Family Justice Court granted the order on Jan 20, 2023.

On Aug 27 that year, Chua came home drunk again and was caught on video committing acts such as pulling his mother’s left arm and pinching her ears.

After viewing the footage, the nephew contacted the police and Chua was arrested for breaching the PPO.

Chua was represented by lawyers Josephus Tan and Cory Wong from Invictus Law Corporation, who pleaded for their client to be given no more than 25 days’ jail.

In their mitigation plea, the lawyers said that he had turned to drinking to drown his sorrows after his long-term girlfriend died in July 2022.

They added: “Mr Chua was deeply affected and had succumbed to a self-defeatist attitude. One thing then led to another and whenever Mr Chua was inebriated, he would become more and more rude and rough towards his own mother.

“This was something that was never the case before Mr Chua had turned to drinking.”

The lawyers told the court that their client has since stopped drinking and hopes to properly care for his mother.

On April 2, Chua’s bail was set at $10,000, and he is expected to surrender himself at the State Courts on April 30 to begin serving his sentence.