Singapore — The teen who trespassed into the Singapore Zoo’s white rhinoceros enclosure on Dec 17 to perform a backflip for a TikTok video has been remanded and given fresh charges after he was issued an arrest warrant for failing to wake up for his court hearing.
Ralph Wee Yi Kai, 19, was on Friday (Nov 12) given four new charges of committing mischief by cutting a GPS ankle tag and of possessing electronic cigarette pods and an e-vaporiser. The ankle tag costs S$100, and he is accused of cutting it at about 12:10 am at 16 Leedon Road on Oct 26.
Wee is also accused of possessing an e-vaporiser and six e-cigarette pods at a ward in the Institute of Mental Health on Sep 14.
He is also likely to face four charges of failing to report for his urine test, but the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) has been unable to serve the charges on him.
Wee is also said to have abused a frog at a Sentosa Cove property. He allegedly placed the amphibian on a foosball table before directing a ball “at high speed” towards it. The ball struck the frog, which suffered injuries and died.
A TikTok video circulating on Reddit showed a group of boys and girls at a house where someone opened a cardboard box of frogs. One of the frogs were then placed on a foosball table and someone could be heard saying, “Wait wait, I’m gonna ‘whack’ one”.
It could also be heard that someone mentioned it was “my last frog”, leading to the plausibility that all the frogs in the box were killed by them.
The 19-year-old caught on video last year doing a backflip inside the white rhinoceros enclosure missed his court hearing on Friday (Oct 5) because he overslept.
Ralph Wee Yi Kai’s defence lawyer Shashi Nathan turned up in court without his client, noting the youth had “difficulty waking up.” Reports noted that Wee’s parents tried waking up their son but failed. /TISG
VIDEO: Teen who backflipped in rhino enclosure for TikTok now charged for abusing frog & killing it