SINGAPORE, April 29 — During an intimate video call with his wife, a man took a topless screenshot of her without asking for her consent, then sent the image to the wife’s older brother, calling her “a prostitute” among other insults.
This happened a few months after the husband physically abused the wife.
Today, the 46-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty to the following offences in relation to his wife:
- Distribution of voyeuristic image
- Breach of a personal protection order
- Voluntarily causing hurt
He also pleaded guilty to a charge of drink driving on a separate occasion.
He was sentenced to six months and four weeks’ jail, ordered to pay a fine of S$7,500 (RM26,264), and disqualified from driving for a period of 42 months (about 3.5 years).
Three other charges were taken into consideration during the sentencing.
All parties cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim.
What happened
The court heard that the husband had gone drinking with his friends on the evening of June 1 last year.
Soon after reaching home and reeking of alcohol, he got into an argument with his wife, aged 41 then, and hit her.
She called for the police at 2.47am and two officers went to their home.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Timotheus Koh said: “Just as the police officers were leaving at about 3.30am, the accused closed the door to the unit and slapped the victim on her right arm, causing her to scream.”
Hearing the slap and scream, the police then arrested the husband.
This incident happened while the wife was under a personal protection order issued by the court on March 10 last year against the accused. Court documents did not mention what led to the protection order being filed.
A few months after the drunken assault on September 15, the victim’s older brother and sister-in-law called her to inform her that her husband had on the night before sent the brother a few photos of her, including one of her topless.
“The photographs were accompanied by messages from the accused stating that the victim was a ‘pig’s child’, ‘a prostitute’, and that she came from a ‘characterless family’,” DPP Koh said.
“The victim felt humiliated, degraded, and harassed. Her face was visible in the photograph showing her with her breasts exposed.”
The topless photo was taken during the couple’s video call last August. While the wife had consented to baring her chest during the call, she did not consent to her husband taking a screenshot of her or sending the picture to anyone else.
Later in the year on November 25, the husband was caught at about 2.15am driving a van in a drunken condition.
He had done this after a night of drinking with his friends, where he had consumed about three to four glasses of whiskey. A breatheliser test found that his breath contained 87 micrograms of alcohol per 100 mililitres of breath, far exceeding the maximum legal limit of 35 micrograms per 100 mililitres.
For voluntarily causing hurt, the husband could have been sentenced to a jail term of up to three years or fined up to S$5,000, or both.
For distribution of voyeuristic images or recording, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined or caned, or been given a combination of these punishments.
Contravening a personal protection order attracts a fine not more than S$2,000 or up to six months in jail, or both.
For drunk driving, the penalty is a fine of between S$2,000 and S$10,000, a jail term of up to 12 months, and disqualification from driving. — TODAY
