Judge grants personal protection order to young man abused by father who claimed he was ‘disciplining’ him

SINGAPORE: A young man whose father pulled his hair, poured water on him, and slapped him in the face, among other hurtful acts, applied for a personal protection order (PPO).

The order was recently granted by District Judge Soh Kian Peng. According to a Nov 3 (Monday) report in CNA, the judge found it necessary for the young man’s safety, in spite of the father having said that he did the acts in an effort to discipline his son. Moreover, his son’s habits irritated him, CNA added.

While the son’s identity has not been made public, the report says that he is over the age of 18 and is only two years away from graduating.

Before the family court would grant the young man a PPO, he needed to prove that his father had committed family violence against him or that his father would do so. The son provided the court with a list of incidents of his father’s violence against him, which stemmed from his disapproval of the way the young man lived.

For example, when the young man fell asleep on the living room sofa in August last year, his father woke him up by flicking a rubber band in his face. On the day after that incident, seeing his son again asleep on the sofa, his father poured water over him.

The father said that he had done this because his son should sleep in his own bedroom if he really wanted to sleep.

A few months later, in December, the two got into an argument concerning an electric socket where the son wanted to charge his laptop. According to the young man, his father got mad at him, slapped him, pushed his head, pulled his hair, and slapped him. His father admitted to this when he gave his testimony.

In June, while his father tried to push his son’s bedroom door shut, the young man tried to stop this by using his foot. His father then tried using a lighter to burn his son’s foot and stamped on the foot, though he argued that the lighter had not been lit and that he had merely used it to scare the young man.

These incidents were enough to convince Judge Soh that the father had committed family violence against the son. Given that the young man is over 18, “he cannot avail himself of the ‘correction exception’ set out in … the Women’s Charter,” the judge added.

A section in the charter says that family violence does not include force lawfully used in correcting a child younger than 18.

Father and son have been ordered by the judge to undergo counselling, in the hopes that their relationship may be repaired. Judge Soh noted that the dynamics of their relationship are in large part due to the fact that they live together, but the son has said that when he graduates and finds a job, he will be moving out. /TISG

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