Girl beaten up at karaoke outlet: 6 women charged

Six women were charged in court yesterday over an attack on a 19-year-old girl at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard in May.

Five of them - consultant Ding Jiao, 28, a Singaporean; assistant account manager Qiu Zhulin, 28, a Chinese national; housewife Liu Jiabao, 30, a Singapore permanent resident; student Wu Huamin, 18, a Chinese national; and student Wang Xi, 23, a Singapore permanent resident - are accused of being part of an unlawful assembly when they assaulted Ms Zheng Lu at an outlet of karaoke chain K-Box in the Grange Road mall.

The sixth accused, Chinese national Wu Huachun, who is a 19-year-old student, was charged together with Wang with causing hurt to Ms Zheng by kicking and punching her about three hours earlier at the karaoke outlet.

This is believed to be the second case of rioting at K-Box in recent months.

In April this year, five women from China were charged with rioting for allegedly attacking 20-year-old student Chen Xing on Nov 10 last year.

Shi Yanjun, 17; Li Xuefei, 19; Hu Heying, 20; Ma Ruian, 21; and Pan Jingwen, 19 - all students - are scheduled to go for another pre-trial conference on July 7.

Lawyer Anthony Lim is acting for Ding and Qiu, while Mr Raphael Louis is representing the other four in this latest case at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard, a popular youth hang-out.

The prosecution applied for an adjournment for the investigation officer to complete investigation and to consult the Attorney-General's Chambers.

Meanwhile, the six were told not to approach the victim named in the charge.

Mr Louis asked for a pre-trial conference date, which is set for July 21.

If convicted of rioting, each offender could be jailed for up to seven years. No caning will be imposed for women, and men above 50.

elena@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on June 28, 2014.
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