A 51-year-old unemployed man was sentenced to one year in jail on Monday after he punched his own elderly mother twice in the face, earlier this year.

The court heard that 70-year-old Mdm Gunapooshanam Pakri Tangavelu went to the kitchen of her flat in western Singapore on 10 Apr this year around 1.30am and founder her son, Thillainathan Karthigesan, laying naked on the floor.

Mdm Gunapooshanam turned away and left the kitchen, taking a seat in the living room. Her naked son yelled at her, “What did I do?” before punching her on the right jaw and again below her left eye, causing her to suffer a cut.

The elderly mother ran out of the house and locked the main gate. She called the police and reported that her son was “giving her problems”.

Doctors who later saw the elderly woman at the hospital found that she had suffered a facial bone fracture from the punches her son rained on her. Mdm Gunapooshanam subsequently obtained a personal protection order against her son, fearing that he would continue to be violent towards her.

The middle-aged jobless son confessed during a forensic psychiatric evaluation that he had consumed at least half a bottle of whiskey and two cans of beer that day and that he had been angry at his mother before he assaulted her.

Thillainathan could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined a maximum of $5000 for voluntarily causing hurt to his mother.