UK man, 22, handed 5-day SDO & 100 hours' community service for assaulting S'porean PHV driver, 66, who has since died

*Editors Note: We have edited the article for clarity*

A 22-year-old British man was sentenced to five-days short detention order (SDO) and 100 hours community service for assaulting a 66-year-old private-hire vehicle driver in Singapore.

A SDO requires the offender to be detained in prison for a period not exceeding 14 days. It acts as a deterrent by allowing the offender to experience prison life.

It is a type of community based sentence, which means that if he successfully complete the sentence, the offence of which he was convicted will be removed from his criminal record.

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, showed up in court on Sep. 7 clad in a black suit and mask for his sentencing.

On Jul. 17, he 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.

Incident

According to the prosecution's closing statement, on Jun. 12, 2024, at about 5pm, Morgan consumed three pints of beer while accompanying his boss and two clients to a bar.

He later met his girlfriend and other friends and had two more 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 Morgan's residence located at Sunset Heights at about 10:58pm, the driver found him asleep in the backseat.

The driver then attempted to wake him up.

However, the prosecution's position was that Morgan 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.

He was conveyed to National University Hospital for emergency treatment.

Driver's skull fracture

The driver later passed away from natural causes in June 2025.

As a result, the only objective evidence in this case was surveillance footage from a private residence across Morgan's place of residence.

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.

Sentencing

In court on Sep. 7, the judge handed Morgan 100 hours of community service within 12 months, based on evidence taken from the footage.

He was also given a short detention order of five days and released on bail.

The judge cited an "unfortunate coincidence of a few things", among which were Morgan's inebriated state which prevented him from providing a clear account of what happened resulting in the injury of the driver.

He also took into account Morgan's clean record, young age and the fact that he had pleaded guilty when the charge was amended.

However, if Morgan fails to comply or complete the sentence, he will be brought back to court to be sentenced in accordance with the law.

Following a short recess, Morgan's bail was also extended.