SINGAPORE: A migrant worker was sentenced to jail in Singapore yesterday (15 Mar) after he assaulted his roommate out of frustration when he could not find his rice cooker.
The incident took place on 19 Jan this year, around 10.20pm. After a long day at work, 31-year-old Vietnamese Le Dong Hai returned home and looked for his rice cooker. When he could not locate it, he went to the bedroom asked his 34-year-old roommate where the appliance was.
The roommate said he did not know where the rice cooker was and Le Dong Hai left the room. He returned shortly thereafter and asked once again where the rice cooker could be.
When the roommate responded that he didn’t know, Le Dong Hai became angry, picked up a 2kg-heavy dumbbell, and struck his roommate on the left side of his head.
The victim felt a sharp pain after being attacked and was bleeding around his left ear. He informed their employer, who notified the police and sent the victim to the hospital. The victim suffered a cut on his left ear, bruising on the left side of his face, and temporary blurred vision as a result of the attack.
Le Dong Hai was arrested the very next day.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Quek Lu Yi pointed out that although the victim’s blurry vision returned to normal after a few days and he was discharged from the hospital on the same day, the defendant used a dumbbell bar to attack the victim, which could have caused him serious injury or even death.
Noting that the unprovoked attack took the victim by surprise as he was lying down in a vulnerable position, District Judge Lee Lit Cheng sentenced the defendant to four months and seven weeks in jail.