S'porean man, 39, punches man, 56, in Bouncy Paradise for allegedly scolding son, jailed 9 months

At an indoor children's playground known as Bouncy Paradise, a Singaporean father learnt from his six-year-old son that he had just been scolded by an adult.

The father went to confront the man and ended up punching his face after they got into an argument.

It gave the 56-year-old man several fractures on his face, near his eye and nose.

Wong Chun Xiong, now 39, was handed two charges in July 2024, one for voluntarily causing grievous hurt, with the other for using insulting words with the intent to cause harassment.

On Oct. 9, he was convicted of the first charge, while the second was taken into consideration.

The court sentenced him to nine months' jail starting from Nov. 11, and ordered him to pay the victim S$408.06 as compensation.

The incident

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Wong was at Bouncy Paradise, located in the Pandan Gardens housing estate, with his two young children and other family members on Sep. 3, 2023.

After hearing from his son about the alleged scolding, Wong went with his son to approach the victim, who had been sitting in a ball pit with one of the victim's young children.

Wong asked the victim why he scolded his son, to which the victim replied that Wong's son had accidentally fallen onto the victim's child.

The victim explained how it happened, and both men broke out into an argument.

The victim jumped out of the ball pit and approached Wong, prompting the latter to step backwards.

As captured by CCTV cameras, the men began pushing and gesturing at each other, then Wong threw a punch at the victim's face.

The blow caused the victim to fall backwards to the ground.

Wong subsequently called the victim "f*cking foreigner" and said "ch**bye" at him, according to charge sheets seen by Mothership.

Some other adults then intervened to stop the incident, and the police soon arrived.

Right of private defence

Wong did not contest the charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt, but claimed that his actions were covered by the right of private defence to absolve him from the charge.

However, his claim ultimately failed because the judge believed Wong was not in a situation where he had no reasonable opportunity to seek recourse from the relevant authorities.

Wong also punched the victim in the face, "a clearly vulnerable location", with an intensity "simply far in excess of what the objective reasonable standard would allow for in defence", the judge added.

According to the prosecutor, the victim suffered bruising, a cut, and swelling on his face in addition to the multiple fractures.

Wong, on the other hand, did not suffer any injuries apart from a minor bruise on his knuckles that likely resulted from his own punch, the prosecutor argued.

A doctor who examined the victim said that his injuries required surgical fixation, but the victim has opted not to undergo surgery for now.

Top images from Canva and Nicholas Zeng/Google Maps