Man fined for punching, kicking pregnant girlfriend in the abdomen during dispute over pregnancy

SINGAPORE: A number of days after a go to to the clinic confirmed that his girlfriend was 9 weeks pregnant, a person obtained right into a dispute along with her when discussing the pregnancy and assaulted her belly space.

Shawn Tan Jia Jun, 24, was sentenced to a wonderful of S$3,500 on Monday (Oct 25) after pleading responsible to at least one rely of voluntarily inflicting damage.

The foetus was wonderful after the assault, however his girlfriend later aborted it. The couple intend to marry by the finish of the 12 months, the courtroom heard, with the decide discovering that this establishes the sufferer's forgiveness of the accused.

The courtroom heard that Tan and his girlfriend, who can also be 24, visited a clinic on Jul 10 final 12 months for a pregnancy check. 

The physician instructed them that the sufferer was 9 weeks pregnant, and requested if she wished to proceed her pregnancy or abort the baby. She was instructed to resolve by Jul 17 as there may very well be additional dangers of medical problems.

On Jul 14, the sufferer visited Tan and stayed in a single day. The subsequent day, they obtained right into a dispute when discussing the pregnancy. Both Tan and the sufferer shouted at one another, and Tan pushed the sufferer onto the mattress earlier than punching and kicking her belly space a number of occasions.

The commotion was heard by Tan's mom, who stopped the dispute. The sufferer then known as a pal who accompanied her out of the flat. 

Later that day, the sufferer sought therapy at the emergency division of a hospital complaining of facial ache, and bruises over her limbs. She was recognized with a facial contusion and redness over her face, and later discharged with a day's medical depart.

A bedside ultrasound carried out on the sufferer discovered that the foetus had an energetic heartbeat.

The sufferer lodged a police report over the assault, however later tried to have the cost withdrawn.

DEFENCE CITES CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING INCIDENT

Defence lawyer Terence Yeo requested for a wonderful, citing the "minor injuries" suffered by the sufferer, the quick length of the altercation and the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Addressing the "elephant in the room", he mentioned the sufferer has since aborted the child. He mentioned this was not a case the place his shopper had a transparent intention to harm or injure the sufferer.

The decide famous that the sufferer's intention to marry the accused by the finish of the 12 months is "the most obvious form of forgiveness".

She agreed with the prosecutor that the acts might have harmed not solely the sufferer however the unborn child, however famous that this was Tan's first offence and that there have been "some mitigating factors".

"It's a domestic dispute, yes, but it's probably over the pregnancy in which a decision had to be made in a very short period of time," mentioned the decide.

"What stands out to me is the victim did probably accept that he did not intentionally harm her in the vicious sense ... it arose spontaneously out of the dispute," she added.

For voluntarily inflicting damage, Tan might have been jailed as much as three years, fined as much as S$5,000, or each.