SINGAPORE - A man was on Wednesday (July 14) sentenced to four months' jail for assaulting his elderly mother who has dementia and is also a wheelchair user.
Ling Heng Soon, now 64, had pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt to Madam Ng Gung Huay - a vulnerable person.
It was not his first brush with the law.
The Singaporean was sentenced to four months' jail last November for assaulting a 60-year-old woman at Mei Ling Market and Food Centre in Mei Ling Street near Commonwealth Avenue in October 2018.
She suffered facial wounds that left scars likely to be permanent.
In the recent case, the court heard that he attacked his 84-year-old mother after she and her Indonesian domestic helper, Ms Eka Fransiska, visited his Chai Chee flat at around 7pm on Aug 7 last year.
Soon after she turned up, the mother-and-son pair started arguing over matters that were not disclosed in court documents.
Madam Ng then insisted that she wanted to go to the ground floor of the block of flats.
Ling instructed Ms Eka to take Madam Ng downstairs, opened his metal gate and pushed his mother's wheelchair out of the flat. Madam Ng was in the wheelchair at the time.
After that, he deliberately pushed the wheelchair towards the staircase railing and she fell onto the ground.
Ms Eka rushed forward to help the woman back into her wheelchair, the court heard.
While the maid was pushing the wheelchair, Ling took control of it and once again pushed it towards the staircase railing. His mother tumbled onto the ground for the second time.
Ling also pulled Madam Ng's hair and used a slipper to hit her left hand thrice.
Ms Eka told Ling to stop and he helped his mother back into the wheelchair. The maid then pushed it back towards Ling's flat.
His wife returned home from work later that evening, and the next day, she noticed that her mother-in-law was injured.
Ling's wife alerted the police after Ms Eka told her about the incident.
Madam Ng received treatment at Changi General Hospital. Her injuries included a wound on her chin and bruises on her limbs.
For assaulting a vulnerable person, an offender can be jailed for up to six years and fined up to $10,000.
