SINGAPORE: A police officer was fined S$2,000 on Tuesday (Dec 18) for hurting his then-wife and breaching a personal protection order she had against him.
The 42-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his ex-wife, has been suspended from his role with the Police Coast Guard.
AdvertisementThe court heard that he married his wife, now 39, in 2004. They have three children together aged six, 11 and 12.
However, they began quarrelling shortly after their marriage, Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicholas Lai said.
The victim applied for a personal protection order and was granted one by the Family Justice Court in August 2005, almost a year after they got married.
The couple stayed married but began arguing with increasing frequency in 2015, and started sleeping separately in January 2017.
AdvertisementAdvertisementIn October that year, the victim applied for a divorce.
A month later, on Nov 3 last year, the couple began arguing about the loss of some sunglasses. The man also received a letter from the Syariah court informing him about a marriage counselling session scheduled for Nov 13.
They began quarrelling in their children's bedroom, and the man suddenly used his finger to poke his wife's private parts over her clothes without her consent, causing her to feel pain.
"After recovering from the shock of what the accused did, she shouted at him to leave the room and the accused complied," the prosecutor said.
The man pleaded guilty to one charge under the Women's Charter, with a second charge taken into consideration for sentencing.
The prosecutor asked for a fine of S$2,000 to be imposed.
Mr Koh added that his client was remorseful, pleaded guilty at the earliest juncture and is no longer married to the victim.
He still pays for maintenance for his three children, said Mr Koh, imploring the judge to impose the smallest possible fine as his client was "of limited means".
District Judge May Mesenas imposed the fine asked for, after gaining assurance from Mr Koh that the violence was unlikely to reoccur as the accused and his ex-wife have supervised contact only for matters pertaining to their children.
For wilfully contravening a protection order, the accused could have been jailed for up to six months.
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