An unemployed man punched a woman on the face and body after she refused to have sex with him, a district court heard yesterday.

Shortly after the assault on July 11, Abusali S.K. Pakir Mydin, 38, took a chopper from the kitchen of the Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4 flat and threatened to slash her face. He then cut himself and called the police, saying he was injured and an "IMH patient", a reference to the Institute of Mental Health.

After he had been taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for treatment, he was transferred to the Ang Mo Kio Police Station lock-up and placed in a padded cell.

That evening, he took off his clothes and flushed them down the toilet bowl in his cell. He also flushed the radio frequency identification tag attached to his wrist.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mark Yeo Kee Teng said that he did this to choke the toilet bowl, so it would fill with water. He tried to drown himself by submerging his head in the water but was restrained by police officers there.

Yesterday, Abusali, who has had a string of previous convictions over the last two decades, was sentenced to two years' jail for criminal intimidation, two weeks for mischief and three months for causing hurt to the 37-year-old victim. He pleaded guilty.

District Judge Eddy Tham ordered two of the sentences - two years and two weeks - to run consecutively. The sentence for the hurt charge is concurrent.

DPP Yeo said the victim knew Abusali through her late brother, who was Abusali's friend.

On July 11, he visited the victim at her home. She let him in and spoke to him for a while. He then asked her to have sex with him.

When she refused, he became angry and started destroying things around the house, and punched her several times. He then threatened her with the chopper.

Two other charges under the Protection from Harassment Act were considered during his sentencing.

The maximum penalty for causing hurt is two years' jail and a $5,000 fine. For criminal intimidation, he could have been jailed for seven years or more; and for mischief, up to one year, fined or both.

Elena Chong