SINGAPORE, May 9 — Barely a month after he began dating a girl eight years his junior, Muhammad Shawal Said assaulted the teen and threatened her point blank with a knife — all because she left his home without his permission. He had trapped the girl in his flat for four days.
Today, Shawal, 24, was sentenced to more than a year in jail, as well as six strokes of the cane, for his actions. He will spend a total of nine months and 14 weeks behind bars, backdated to Oct 8, 2018 when he was remanded.
The odd-jobs worker pleaded guilty to six assorted charges, including causing hurt, criminal intimidation and using criminal force on a public servant. Four other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that Shawal and the girl, now aged 16, who cannot be named to protect her identity, got into a relationship sometime in September 2018 after meeting on Facebook.
The next month, on Oct 1, the girl went to his home where he lived alone. Sometime later, she told him that she wanted to go home as it was late, but he refused to let her leave. He then removed the SIM card from her mobile phone before returning the phone to her.
When she tried to leave the next morning, he blocked her at the door of his room and pushed her back in.
Finally, four days after arriving, she left his house on the afternoon of Oct 5, when Shawal was sleeping. As she sat on the staircase of the sixth floor to think about where to go and how to retrieve her belongings from his room, he approached her and asked why she was outside.
She told him she needed fresh air, then Shawal said he wanted to go out and left.
When she found his house door locked, she went downstairs and saw him sitting in the void deck with her mobile phone. She told him she wanted to take her belongings and leave, and he told her to follow him upstairs.
As they walked towards the lift lobby, he suddenly wrapped his hand around her neck from behind, bent her body forward at a 90-degree angle and swung her to the floor, pulling her into the lift. He also shouted at her and punched the lift.
Back in his room, he punched, slapped and kicked her face and body multiple times. He then took out a knife and pointed it at her forehead, then moved it to her neck area while she was against the wall.
Afraid for her safety, she agreed when he told her to swear not to leave the house without his permission.
Shawal returned her SIM card to her later that evening, and told her he wanted to break up with her. After they went their separate ways, the girl called his mother to tell her he had beaten her up.
Before she could meet the older woman, Shawal returned to the block and spotted her. On his insistence, they went back to his home. He then snatched her phone when she tried to call his mother again, and slapped and punched her face.
The next day, the pair went to East Coast Park. The girl borrowed a passer-by’s mobile phone after pretending she needed to go to the washroom, and called her mother, who called the police.
Shawal was arrested that evening. The police found a card knife in his wallet.
The girl went to Tampines Polyclinic for a checkup two days later, where a doctor found multiple bruises over her body, such as on her chest and inner thigh.
In a separate incident pre-dating his relationship with the girl, on Aug 20, 2018, Shawal kicked and damaged a Singapore Civil Defence Force ambulance. Paramedics had attended to him as he lay drunk on the ground at the lift area of Block 163, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4.
The paramedics loaded him into the ambulance, intending to take him to hospital when they found his blood sugar level was low.
Shawal then shouted vulgarities at a paramedic and started to violently kick inside the ambulance. He managed to crack the right rear door, scuff the padding on the fridge, and damage five plastic drawers containing supplies.
The total cost of the damage was S$1,192.
Police officers then took him to Yishun Community Hospital.
There, he began jerking around in his hospital bed and asked two escort police officers whether they could loosen the restraint on his hand. When the officers said no, he became agitated, began using abusive language and spat at them several times.
In another incident, on Dec 24, 2018, Shawal spat at an Aetos auxiliary police officer while he was in the State Courts lock-up.
The court heard that Shawal committed violent offences against police officers in 2012 and 2013, and spent time in a juvenile home and a reformative training centre. — TODAY
