It’s normal for couples to disagree and have arguments once in a while. However, it’s never acceptable for them to get violent with each other.
On Thursday (7 Apr), 24-year-old Singaporean Shawn Tan Jia Jun was sentenced to two weeks’ jail for assaulting his pregnant girlfriend.
Though he initially faced a S$3,500 fine, the High Court overturned the decision after noting that the district judge had failed to consider the severity of his actions.
The victim has apparently forgiven her boyfriend and decided to marry him.
TODAY reports that in Jul 2020, Tan assaulted his girlfriend when she was nine weeks pregnant. They allegedly got into a dispute while discussing the pregnancy.
The argument intensified when he pushed her onto the bed. He then punched and kicked her in the abdomen several times. He also hit her in the face.
Tan’s mother heard the commotion and intervened.
That day, the victim was diagnosed with a facial contusion and received a day’s medical leave. She received treatment for facial, chest, and abdominal pain, as well as bruises.
No harm came to the foetus but she eventually aborted it.
Tan’s girlfriend has since decided to marry him.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Tan was fined S$3,500 in October last year after pleading guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt to his girlfriend.
High Court judge Justice Vincent Hoong overturned this sentence on Apr 7, calling it “manifestly inadequate”.
He said that the district judge failed to consider the severity of the attack. He also disagreed with using the victim’s apparent act of forgiveness to justify giving Tan a fine instead of jail time.
Justice Hoong stated that a victim’s forgiveness only influences the offender’s sentence in two cases.
First, if the sentence would aggravate the victim’s distress. And second, if the victim’s forgiveness proves that her suffering from the offence “must be very much less than would normally be the case”.
He disagreed that these conditions applied to Tan’s case. This is due to insufficient evidence that his stint in jail would aggravate the victim’s distress.
Tan’s lawyers argued that this sentence would “significantly” hurt the couple in planning for their future. Justice Hoong rejected this argument.
Furthermore, Justice Hoong has doubts about whether Tan truly feels remorseful as the latter only stopped the attack when his mother intervened. Justice Hoong also called Tan’s attempts to downplay the violence of his attack “unconscionable”.
He added that the victim was especially vulnerable. As a pregnant woman, she would have felt additional emotional distress from the fear of losing her unborn child.
Therefore, Justice Hoong concluded that jail time was “unquestionably warranted”. It would also send a clear message to would-be offenders that the authorities will not tolerate such actions. Despite that, he still has hope for Tan, saying,
I hope that he will learn from this unfortunate experience and become a better person, not only for himself but also for the victim whom he is to marry.
Getting into arguments is part and parcel of being in a relationship. However, nothing good can come out of resorting to violence.
Instead, both parties should stay calm and discuss the issue properly to resolve the situation.
We hope that Tan will repent for his actions and we wish the couple a happy marriage.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.
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