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Ong Eng Seng, 62, and his son Bernard Ong Wei Feng, 31, were each charged with voluntarily causing hurt for assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

The boy was playing football at a multipurpose hall at Block 6, Toa Payoh Lorong 7 on December 22, 2019.

Straits Times reported that the father-son duo were ordered to pay S$60 each for the boy's medical expenses.

Both of them were also sentenced to three weeks' jail.

The incident

On Dec. 22, 2019, the elder Ong was walking by the multipurpose hall when a ball came near him.

He confronted the boy and his friends and shouted expletives at them. The boys retaliated with even more expletives, according to ST.

The elder Ong warned the boys that he would be back and told his son about the concurrence at home.

The father-son duo then returned to confront the teenagers at the multipurpose hall at around 5:30pm, when the boys were sitting on the floor, CNA reported.

The assault

The 13-year-old was pulled to the younger Ong's feet and was shouted at:

"Eh you made fun of my dad uh. You think it's funny?"

Held by the neck, the boy was slammed to the floor by the younger Ong — causing his head to hit the floor as a result.

The assault continued as the boy was punched in his right cheek and pinned down to the floor before he was lifted up to his feet, according to the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Andre Chong.

The situation aggravated when the elder Ong stepped in and strangled the boy's neck. The boy was then slapped five to six times before being pushed towards a nearby stone bench.

The Ongs left the scene afterwards.

Grandmother reacted

A police report was made at Kim Keat Neighbourhood Police Post after the boy's grandmother noticed his injury after the incident.

He was then brought to the children's emergency department at KK Women's and Children's Hospital and was found to have multiple injuries — including bruises on his face, neck, shoulder, arm and back.

"Act of social consciousness"

According to CNA, the Ongs' lawyer Mervyn Tan told the court that the elder Ong acted out of a sense of "social consciousness" and that Ong was also provoked by the vulgarities used against him by the boys. The younger Ong felt that his father was being taken advantaged of, Tan added.

However, the District Judge Ng Peng Hong disagreed, calling their acts "clearly antisocial".

Ng also highlighted that the Ongs have taken the law into their own hands and injured the teen in the process.

He added that there is a need to signal to the public that such behaviour is intolerable.

The Ongs could have been jailed for up to two years, fined up to S$5,000 or both for voluntarily causing hurt.

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