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| Briton sentenced to two months’ jail for assaulting cabby |
| 9 Mar 2010 |
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A district judge has sentenced a British national to two months’ imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt to a taxi driver.
The court heard that 47-year-old electrical engineer, Jamie Rae Hislop and two of his friends boarded a taxi at Holland Village in the wee hours of the morning on 16 March 2008.
Hislop sat in the front passenger seat while his companions sat in the back.
The cabby, 46-year-old, Gibson Goh Kok Kiong was first instructed to drive to Pine Grove off Ulu Pandan Road to drop off the two friends.
Mr Goh was then told to go to Great World City as Hislop was then residing in the vicinity of Kim Seng Road.
But as the cabby was driving along Grange Road, Deputy Public Prosecutor, Sanjiv Vaswani told District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim that Hislop started to shout and behave in an aggressive manner towards Mr Goh.
Mr Vaswani added that Hislop suddenly punched and head-butted the driver while the vehicle was still moving.
And when Mr Goh tried to push Hislop’s face away, the court heard that the Briton grabbed the cabby’s hand and bit his right thumb.
Mr Goh stopped the taxi along Grange Road where he alighted and called for the Police.
Hislop also got off the vehicle and chased Mr Goh around the taxi.
Mr Vaswani said that the cabby suffered a bruise on his head and a superficial wound on his right thumb following the assault.
In his mitigation, Hislop’s lawyer, Rajan Supramaniam told the judge that his client had had a few drinks at Holland Village shortly before the incident.
Mr Rajan also told the court that Mr Goh was driving at an "excessive speed" when he was driving Hislop and his two friends home.
The court heard, Hislop told Mr Goh to slow down but cabby took "no notice" of the request.
Mr Rajan said that Hislop was "concerned for his own safety" and had repeatedly told Mr Goh to slow down as he was said to be "speeding dangerously."
The matter soon escalated into a scuffle between the two men at Grange Road that morning.
Mr Rajan told the court, his client has shown "genuine remorse, shame and regret" for his conduct.
He added that Hislop also realised that he had acted "very foolishly" and "regretted" for losing his self control.
Mr Rajan said that his client will be appealing against the sentence.
In the meantime, Hislop was offered bail of $10,000.
For voluntarily causing hurt, Hislop could be jailed up to two years and fined a maximum of $5,000. |