\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE \u2013 A man struck his wife when she confronted him about his affair, fracturing her nasal bone and altering the shape of her nose. <\/p>\n
As she sought medical help at a hospital, the man\u2019s sister told her to lie to the doctor by saying she had injured herself in a fall. <\/p>\n
But the doctor did not believe her and she eventually told him the truth, and later lodged a police report. <\/p>\n
On March 26, the man was sentenced to 11 months\u2019 jail and one stroke of the cane after he pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to his wife. <\/p>\n
Four other charges for voluntarily causing hurt and harassment were taken into consideration during his sentencing. <\/p>\n
The man, a former police officer, cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the identity of his wife. Court documents did not mention when he left the police force. <\/p>\n
The couple are now divorced. <\/p>\n
The court heard that the man had returned home drunk on Dec 11, 2018. His wife was angry with him as she had just found out he was having an affair. <\/p>\n
Their argument soon turned violent and the woman tried to defend herself by holding on to her husband. During the struggle, he swung his knee up and struck her nose, which started bleeding. <\/p>\n
The prosecution said the woman was able to stop the bleeding herself before she sought medical attention at Sengkang General Hospital. <\/p>\n
When her sister-in-law instructed her to lie to the doctor, she complied but eventually came clean and made a police report on Dec 12, 2018. <\/p>\n
The prosecution said the woman suffers from a lasting deformity on her nose as a result of the assault. <\/p>\n
Following the incident, the man moved back to his mother\u2019s flat. The court heard that the wife had initially looked into divorcing her husband, but they reconciled some time in 2019. <\/p>\n
The woman and their three children then moved into her mother-in-law\u2019s flat. <\/p>\n
Some time in June 2019, she received a call from the man\u2019s mistress, who told her she had just slept with him. Later that day, she confronted her husband in front of his mother. He denied having cheated on her. <\/p>\n
She cried and grabbed his shoulders, asking him why he had cheated on her again after telling her to reconcile with him. <\/p>\n
At this point, he pushed her back and kicked her in the chest, causing her to fall. She then called her father on the phone. The argument ended only when her father went to the flat to look for her. <\/p>\n
The man called her on June 20, 2019, as he knew she was seeking medical attention at a hospital after experiencing pain in her chest. He pleaded with her to lie to the doctors. As she wanted to give him another chance, she lied that she had slipped and fallen. <\/p>\n
Medical examinations revealed she had suffered a mild rib fracture. <\/p>\n
The couple finalised their divorce in 2022. <\/p>\n
In mitigation, the man\u2019s lawyer said the charges, while serious, were out of character for his client if taken in comparison with his years of exemplary service in the Singapore Police Force. <\/p>\n
He added that the man had made every effort to reform and tried to reconcile with his family, and he and his ex-wife are now exploring the possibility of getting married again in the future. <\/p>\n
In response, DPP Tay said that as a former police investigative officer, the man should have known that violence cannot be the answer to domestic arguments.<\/p>\n
District Judge Cheng Yuxi said she could not agree with the man\u2019s mitigating plea that his actions had been out of character. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou were a police officer and you should know this better than anyone… These charges span a number of years and include both physical and verbal abuse,\u201d said the judge, noting that the man had reoffended even after a police report was made against him<\/p>\n<\/div>\n