British man, 22, pleads guilty to assaulting S'porean private-hire vehicle driver, 66, who has since died

Editor's note: This article has been amended to include the fact that the deceased passed away a year later from natural causes, unrelated to the incident. The original charge was amended from "voluntarily causing grievous hurt" to "voluntarily causing hurt which causes grievous hurt".

A 22-year-old British man was convicted of assaulting a 66-year-old private-hire vehicle driver in Singapore.

The driver sustained fractures to his skull and died about a year after the incident from natural causes on Jun. 14, 2025.

Oruche Morgan Fidelis, a Singapore permanent resident, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of using criminal force after pleading not guilty to the original charge of voluntarily causing hurt which causes grievous hurt on Jul. 15, Shin Min Daily News reported.

Beer

According to the prosecution's closing statement, on Jun. 12, 2024, at about 5pm, the accused accompanied his boss and two clients to a bar.

He consumed three pints of beer.

The accused later met his girlfriend and other friends and had two pints of beer.

At about 10:30pm, he booked a private-hire vehicle at Asia Square to return home and boarded the vehicle.

The prosecution's position was that when the vehicle arrived at the accused’s residence located at Sunset Heights at about 10:58pm, the driver found him asleep in the backseat.

The driver then attempted to wake the accused up.

However, the prosecution's position was that the accused was reportedly unhappy at being awakened and proceeded to lunge at and push the driver, causing him to fall and hit his head on the ground, resulting in a skull fracture.

The driver was conveyed to National University Hospital for emergency treatment.

Evidence

As the driver had passed away from natural causes in June 2025, the judge reportedly said the only objective evidence in this case was surveillance footage from a private residence across the place of residence of the accused.

The footage revealed that after the accused woke up, he appeared to calmly remove his headphones and move towards the driver in one swift movement.

The judge noted that medical evidence only confirmed that the driver sustained a skull fracture, but could not ascertain if the fracture was caused by the fall from being pushed, punched or him tripping.

As the circumstances surrounding how the injury was caused were highly speculative, and the prosecution was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt how the accused voluntarily caused hurt, the court could not convict the accused on the original charge of voluntarily causing hurt which causes grievous hurt.

This resulted in the amendment of the original charge that the accused lunged at and pushed the driver, causing him to sustain a skull fracture, to the amended charge of using criminal force, where the accused committed an aggressive act by raising his left hand arm towards the driver.

The accused pleaded guilty to the amended charge.

The case was adjourned to Aug. 4 for sentencing.