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Former actor Ng Aik Leong, better known as Huang Yiliang, has started serving his 10-month jail term after his appeal was dismissed by the High Court on Friday, Feb. 4.
Charged for assault
Ng had been charged in 2019 for using a metal scraper on his 34-year-old Bangladeshi employee, Jahidul.
He hit the employee once on his abdomen and once on his head with the tool in 2018, as he was annoyed that the employee did not use enough string to fasten a plastic bag to a rubbish pail.
Jahidul suffered injuries to his scalp and torso.
The 60-year-old was found guilty on one count of voluntarily causing hurt using a dangerous weapon.
He was handed a sentence of 10 months' imprisonment and ordered to compensate the worker S$3,300 on Feb. 26, 2021.
Ng claimed that employee was exaggerating
At his trial in 2020, Ng said that the 35-year-old victim had asked Ng to beat him, reported CNA.
He instead claimed that he was the real victim, and said that Jahidul was "a big monster" who was framing him and "trying to murder him".
Ng also added that he had learnt how to throw fake punches as an actor and did not actually hit the victim or injure him.
The Straits Times reported that Ng claimed that the victim was "acting" and exaggerating his injuries to make them out to be "100 times worse than they actually were".
Appeal for lower sentence by defence
At his court appeal, Ng's appointed lawyer Chung Ting Fai argued against the conviction and asked for a lower jail term of six months on Feb. 4, reported Yahoo News.
Chung said that the victim's injuries would have been greater if Ng had really used a metal scraper to hit him, according to CNA.
He said that there were no witness to the alleged attack, and the victim's testimony was accepted "without question".
Chung pointed out that the trial judge did not consider the absence of sound in the CCTV footage, which showed Ng sitting down calmly and "was inconsistent with a person who just perpetuated violence on another person".
He also requested the prosecution to disclose video footage that supposedly showed Ng faking his punches and the victim pretending to be injured.
"Plethora of objective contextual evidence" says prosecution
However, prosecutor Chong Kee En argued that there was a “plethora of objective contextual evidence” which showed that Ng had hurt the victim, according to Yahoo News.
Ng had been holding onto the scraper during and after the altercation, as seen on CCTV footage.
The victim was also seen to be holding his head in pain and he could not have known then that he was being filmed by surveillance cameras, said Chong.
His injuries were also observed by others, including an investigation officer.
Judge's decision
Justice Aedit Abdullah dismissed the appeal, stating that Chung's arguments were not persuasive.
The judge found the 10 months’ jail sentence justified, given the history of verbal and mental abuse Ng had inflicted on the migrant worker, who was in a position of vulnerability, according to ST.
Jahidul had testified that Ng would yell at him and threaten him frequently, even challenging him to fights.
Abdullah added that there was “more than sufficient evidence” which pointed to Ng's guilt, according to Yahoo News.
He upheld the conviction, sentence and compensation order imposed by the lower courts.
After receiving his verdict, a visibly emotional Ng muttered, "I'm sorry, I'm really very sorry, Your Honour," in Mandarin.
Ng also faces a separate charge of disturbing the public peace for fighting with one Mogana Raj Saravanan on Jun. 9, 2019.
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Top images by Huang Yiliang/Facebook.