Assault victim stripped and had video shot by attacker

A woman's estranged husband not only assaulted a man whom he believed was having an extra-marital affair with her, but also sent a clip of the victim's bare genitals and injured face to more than 500 people.

The 2020 incident also saw her uncle and cousin joining the attack in Woodlands.

The cousin's girlfriend, now 24, used her mobile phone and her boyfriend's device to film the incident.

On Friday (Jan 7), she was sentenced to a year's probation. She pleaded guilty to being part of a group to commit criminal intimidation.

As part of her sentence, she has to perform 40 hours of community service and her mother was bonded for $5,000 to ensure her good behaviour.

The husband, now 40, will be sentenced on Jan 13. He pleaded guilty earlier to one count each of voluntarily causing grievous hurt, distributing intimate recordings and acting in a disorderly manner.

The cases involving the cousin, 22, and the uncle, 52, are pending. They are a father-and-son pair.

All parties linked to this case cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the victim's identity.

The court heard that, at the time of the offences, the wife, 37, and her husband were undergoing divorce proceedings.

At around 10pm on Feb 7, 2020, her husband, uncle, cousin and the younger woman waited near her home to follow her as they thought she was having an extra-marital affair.

Court documents do not disclose if the wife was indeed having an affair with the 37-year-old victim .

They spotted her entering the victim's car and tailed it in three vehicles.

The victim was driving towards Woodlands Checkpoint when the husband and cousin decided to "trap" the man.

The husband stopped his car behind the victim's vehicle while the cousin halted in front of it. The cousin asked his girlfriend to record the incident, the court heard.

The cousin and the husband confronted the victim who refused to get out of his car. He did so only after the husband kicked its side mirror.

The wife, victim and offenders then gathered at a grass patch by the roadside.

The two men rained blows on the victim.

The wife's uncle took part in the attack when he arrived soon after.

When the wife tried to intervene, her uncle assaulted her and dragged her by the neck. Her husband spat at her and abused her with vulgar language.

The husband used the victim's mobile phone to record the man's bare genitals, with the clip sent to more than 500 of the latter's contacts via messaging platform WhatsApp to humiliate him. They included his colleagues, friends and neighbours.

The police were notified and officers arrived soon after.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Bin said: "Upon being told to calm down and to stop behaving in a rowdy fashion, (the husband, uncle and cousin) nevertheless continued to conduct themselves in a disorderly manner by shouting derogatory insults at (the wife).

"They did so while standing along Woodlands Centre Road (and) only stopped shouting at (the wife) when they were placed under arrest. "

The attack lasted about 30 minutes and the victim suffered a minor head injury as well as fractures to his face and right collar bone. He was given 21 days of medical and hospitalisation leave.

On Friday, the DPP urged the court to sentence the husband to at least 4 ½ years' jail and six strokes of the cane, adding that the victim was "severely traumatised" after the attack.

The husband's lawyer, Mr Luke Netto, who pleaded for a lighter sentence, said his client initially wanted to gather "evidence" as he wanted to gain custody of their children.

The lawyer added that the attack took place after his client saw that the victim had referred to the children's mother as "my love" on his mobile phone.

For voluntarily causing grievous hurt, an offender can be jailed up to 10 years and fined or caned.