British man, 22, assaulted S'pore private-hire vehicle driver, 66, who died a year later after skull fractured

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 on Jun. 14, 2025.

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

Beer

On Jun. 12, 2024, at about 5pm, Fidelis accompanied his boss and two clients to a bar.

He consumed three pints of beer.

Fidelis 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.

When the vehicle arrived at Fidelis’ residence located at Sunset Way at about 10:58pm, the driver found him asleep in the backseat.

He then attempted to wake Fidelis up.

However, Fidelis was reportedly unhappy at being awakened and proceeded to shove 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, the judge reportedly said the only objective evidence in this case was surveillance footage from a private residence across Fidelis’ place.

The footage revealed that after Fidelis woke up, he appeared to calmly remove his headphones before rushing towards the driver.

The judge noted that medical evidence confirmed 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 the injury were highly speculative, the prosecution could not "exclude all reasonable doubt" to prove Fidelis’ intent to cause serious bodily harm.

As such, Fidelis could not be convicted of voluntarily causing grievous hurt.

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

Fidelis pleaded guilty to the amended charge.

The case was adjourned to Aug. 4 for sentencing.