Angela Yong Sze Ting was sentenced to 10 days’ jail after pleading guilty to one count of voluntarily cause hurt to a person below 14 years old. - Photo: ST
SINGAPORE: A woman who was wrapping a gift at a Toys ‘R’ Us outlet in Novena got into a fight with a couple over the use of adhesive tape.
After they left, the woman, Angela Yong Sze Ting, 36, who was still upset, kicked the couple’s three-year-old son, causing him to fall.
The boy, who hurt his knee, was given three days of medical leave and appeared to have been traumatised following the incident.
On Friday (Nov 1), Yong was sentenced to 10 days’ jail after pleading guilty to one count of voluntarily cause hurt to a person below 14 years old.
In sentencing Yong, District Judge Eddy Tham said it was shocking that the young mother with young children had no qualms in attacking the young child, describing it as cowardly.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jheong Siew Yin told the court that the boy was at the Toys ‘R’ Us store at level 2 of United Square on May 1, 2024, with his parents and five-year-old brother at about 7pm.
The boy’s parents were gift wrapping at the self-help station when Yong approached the station to wrap her purchase.
A verbal dispute then arose between Yong and the couple over the use of the tape.
The couple then finished gift wrapping their purchases and walked out of the shop with their children in tow.
Yong, who had also finished gift wrapping her purchase, caught up with them and kicked the back of the boy’s right foot.
The boy, who was walking behind his parents, fell and landed on his left knee.
DPP Jheong said in making the conscious decision to kick the boy from behind while his parents were walking ahead, Yong thought that she could get away with her act.
She also tried to leave the scene, with closed-circuit television footage capturing her quickly walking past the boy after kicking him.
The prosecutor said that fortuitously, the boy’s father had witnessed the entire incident when he turned to check on his sons, and he stopped Yong from fleeing the scene.
He and his wife notified the police, who arrived shortly thereafter.
While Yong complied with instructions to go to Tanglin Police Station for questioning, DPP Jheong said she was not remorseful during investigations, and persistently claimed that she had accidentally tripped the boy.
She also did not make any restitution to him.
The boy was taken to a clinic on the night of the incident, where a doctor diagnosed him with knee pain, but noted he was able to walk and had no visible injuries.
Observing him to be very quiet and afraid, and that he appeared traumatised, the doctor referred the boy to a child psychiatrist. His parents did not follow up on the referral.
DPP Jheong asked the court to sentence Yong to between two and three weeks’ jail.
She said Yong’s conduct towards the boy was unwarranted and unprovoked and that if anything, the verbal dispute was between her and the boy’s parents.
Yong’s lawyer, Alyssa Mundo, said her client’s actions did not warrant her to be sent to jail.
She said Yong did not deliberately trail the family but was just heading in that same direction to rejoin her family at a restaurant.
For voluntarily causing hurt, an offender can be jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$5,000, or both. If the victim is a minor below the age of 14, the maximum penalties are doubled. - The Straits Times/ANN
