Man who ate faeces in lock-up found fit to face court, jailed 8 weeks
A man who ate his own faeces while in lock-up was found fit to face the court.
Osman Ghani Syed Musgooth, 49, was found to not be of unsound mind after a psychiatric evaluation.
The unemployed man was yesterday jailed for eight weeks after he pleaded guilty to two charges of voluntarily causing hurt and one of using criminal force on a public servant.
Another four charges of threatening a public servant were taken into consideration.
The court heard that on Jan 20 last year, Osman Ghani was arrested and placed in lock-up for an alleged offence of insulting the modesty of a woman.
At about 5.30pm, he was to be escorted to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for further assessment.
But as an officer was placing the restraints on him, Osman Ghani threatened him and headbutted his chest.
On April 20, while a patient at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), he punched another patient in the ward after arguing over newspapers.
The 23-year-old bled from his lips from the attack.
Then on Aug 4, at about 5.20pm, Osman Ghani and a friend assaulted an elderly man at Hong Lim Complex after he could not give them directions.
The 71-year-old fell after the accused said he was rude and punched him, and had swelling and bruising around his left jaw.
In a Jan 6 hearing, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jotham Tay told the court Osman Ghani had been hitting his head against a wall in his cell and consumed his own faeces in lock-up in November last year.
He was then remanded at IMH for psychiatric evaluation.
But yesterday, DPP Tay told the court that Osman Ghani was found to be of sound mind and was fit to face the court.
Osman Ghani smiled in the dock when details of his attack on the officer were read out.
The prosecution also told the court his antecedents relating to violence dated back to 1994.
Osman Ghani pleaded for leniency and said he wanted to quickly serve his sentence and get out of jail so he could get a job and help his mother with her finances.
District Judge May Mesenas noted that the accused also had a drug habit and told him to look into getting help upon his release.
She backdated his sentence to Dec 10, when he was in remand.
For each charge of voluntarily causing hurt, he could have been jailed for up to three years, or fined up to $5,000, or both.
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