A 44-year-old gang member who had enough of the headman of his gang decided to "teach him a lesson".
Salman bin Abu Samah, 44, was joined by four other gang members as he beat up the 60-year-old headman, supposedly for the sake of their "Mami".
"Mami" is the headman's stepsister, whom Salman treats like his mother. The headman was allegedly abusive against her.
They left the headman in a permanent vegetative state and tried to "stage the scene" as if he fell after drinking.
Salman pleaded guilty to three charges in court, which included charges of rioting, voluntarily causing hurt with a common intention, and voluntarily causing hurt by a dangerous weapon with a common intention.
Two other charges were taken into consideration.
He was sentenced to 12 years of preventive detention and 10 strokes of the cane.
See headman's stepsister as his godmother
According to a judgment made publicly available on Oct. 26, 2023, Salman is a member of the gang "Salakau 369", while the victim was the headman of the gang at Marine Parade.
Salman visited the victim at his house after he was released from prison on Oct. 6, 2020. He was then introduced to the victim's stepsister, who lived together with the victim.
Prior to the incident, the victim and his stepsister had an argument regarding the victim's involvement with drugs at the house.
He then allegedly slapped and threatened to stab her with a knife, leading the stepsister to chase him out of the house.
Salam subsequently became close with the stepsister, who confided in him about what the victim had done to her.
He viewed her as a motherly figure and wanted to avenge her for the victim's acts of violence against her.
He was also angry at the victim for not returning money owed to him.
The victim, who had to live in budget hotels after being kicked out, was unhappy that his stepsister allowed Salman to reside in their flat.
Headman kept asking for girls from him
On the day of the incident on Nov. 14, 2020, at around 8pm, Salman was at a pub together with members of his gang and other friends to celebrate one of their birthdays.
While at the pub, Salman, who previously worked as a pimp, received calls from the victim persistently asking for prostitutes, sex enhancement pills, and to pay for his hotel rooms. He declined the calls as he felt that the victim was taking advantage of him.
At about 11:05pm, the group proceeded to one member's house at Block 9 North Bridge Road, where they continued their drinking session on a corridor of the second level.
The victim began calling one of the other gang members when he could not reach Salman. Both Salman and the other members became angry at their headman's persistence.
Salman then unblocked the victim on his phone, shouted at him about the money the victim owed him, and eventually angrily told the victim to meet him at the HDB block to settle their issues.
At about 1:45am, the victim arrived at the void deck of the block.
Salman, together with four members of the gang, went down to confront the victim.
Headman became unconscious from the first punch
After a gang member confronted the victim about what he had done to "Mami", the victim admitted to slapping her.
He then proceeded to hurl vulgarities at the member. In retaliation, he punched the victim, causing him to fall backwards and become unconscious.
All five members then proceeded to kick and punch his motionless body.
Salman repeatedly kicked the victim's thigh area and face and stepped on his face about three or four times.
At about 1.51am, all five persons left the victim lying motionless and bleeding at the void deck.
They were also laughing, as the victim was apparently snoring loudly.
Took video of assault
Around 1:53am, one member went to the void deck alone to move the victim out of public view. He dragged the unconscious victim by his t-shirt to an isolated corner near a senior care centre, away from security cameras.
Salman and another member came shortly after to the isolated corner.
There, Salman punched and stepped on the victim's face a few times. He also kicked the victim's throat, causing him to make choking noises.
Two other members also assaulted the victim. One sat on the victim's stomach while slapping him, struck his chin with an elbow, and said, "I am small Joker Singapore".
The trio found it funny that the victim was snoring throughout the assault, and one of them took a video.
They then left the isolated corner at around 1:55am together.
Staged the victim as drunk
At about 2.19am, Salman and one gang member who previously dragged the victim to the isolated corner returned. The latter was carrying a “Chivas Regal” glass bottle.
The gang member spilt alcohol over the victim’s body and then dropped the bottle on his forehead in a bid to make him smell like alcohol.
Thereafter, the two delivered more kicks to the victim.
Salman suggested leaving the dropped bottle beside the victim to make it look like he had fallen due to intoxication.
Shortly after, two other gang members came down from the second floor to join them. The four took the lift back up together, laughing at a video of the further assault done to the victim.
Victim was left in a vegetative state
The next morning, around 9:30am, a passerby saw the unconscious victim with facial injuries and dried blood on his face.
He called the police, and the victim was conveyed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital at about 9:53am.
Another witness who saw the victim did not call the police as he had thought that the victim was just drunk.
The victim sustained grave injuries, including traumatic brain injury.
He spent 53 days in the hospital before being moved to a community hospital and subsequently to a nursing home to receive hospice care.
A medical report dated Aug. 1, 2023, stated that the victim remains bed-bound, non-communicative and requires full assistance for his daily care needs.
"It is difficult to understate the severity of the injuries inflicted on the victim and their implications on his quality of life," the judgment stated.
No compensation has been made as of sentencing.
Offences got more brutal as he aged: Judge
The prosecution argued that Salman should be sentenced to preventive detention for a term of 12 years and given 12 strokes of the cane.
The defence disagreed and argued for a prison sentence of 60 months imprisonment and six strokes of the cane.
The district judge found preventive detention necessary to protect the public from Salman.
Preventive detention, usually imposed on recalcitrant offenders, involves the confinement of an offender for a minimum of 7 years and up to a maximum of 20 years. Anyone sentenced to preventive detention is not eligible for conditional remission.
The judge noted that Salman had been sentenced to prison before for a slew of other offences, such as robbery, and "has not been able to stay crime-free for any substantial period".
He also mentioned that Salman had a history of violence-related offences and that the offences only got more brutal as he aged.
"It is no exaggeration to say that the injuries caused to the victim were amongst the most severe nature possible, barring death," Tan said.
Salman has appealed against his sentence.
Top photo via Unsplash