Youth who backflipped in S’pore Zoo oversleeps for court appearance, warrant of arrest issued

Singapore – 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.

Wee was scheduledt to appear in the district court for a review of his bail.

He is facing six charges, two of which for mischief and one each for vandalism, criminal trespass, animal abuse and drug consumption.

Wee can be given four more charges for offences that include drug-related crimes, reported Channel News Asia.

He is expected to plead guilty to the charges on Nov 22.

After failing to appear in court, Mr Nathan then urged the judge to issue a warrant of arrest, authorising the police to take Wee into custody.

The judge obliged the request.

Wee’s defence lawyer said that his client was on bail after the initial charging, but “there was difficulty looking after him,” leading to his subsequent one month remand.

Wee was charged with one count of drug consumption on Oct 13 while in remand. His bail was raised to S$20,000, and he was released.

The Straits Times reported that while Wee was out on his second bail, he cut his electronic tag and failed to report for his urine tests.

Following the string of offences, the prosecution called for an urgent bail review hearing to have his second bail revoked.

For criminal trespass, Wee can be imprisoned for up to three months and fined up to S$1,500. For vandalism, he can be fined up to S$2,000 or imprisoned for up to three years and receive three to eight strokes of the cane.

For cannabis consumption, Wee can be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined up to S$20,000./TISG

Read related: VIDEO: Teen who backflipped in rhino enclosure for TikTok now charged for abusing frog & killing it

VIDEO: Teen who backflipped in rhino enclosure for TikTok now charged for abusing frog & killing it