He slaps, punches him for software mistakes

He slaps, punches him for software mistakes

A boss subjected his employee to months of torment for mistakes he made at work.

Lee Yew Nam, manager of IT company Encore E-Services, slapped, punched and pushed Mr Calvin Chan Meng Hock on multiple occasions. He was caught after one of his violent outbursts was captured on camera and posted online.

The 17-second video clip, which showed him assaulting Mr Chan, now 31, went viral in mid-2013.

The small-built Lee, 44, pleaded guilty in court yesterday to four counts of voluntarily causing hurt to Mr Chan between January and May that year.

He committed these offences in their third-storey office of what was then the iHub building, now known as Jurong Town Hall, at Jurong Town Hall Road.

Two other charges involving the same victim - a fifth count of assault committed between July 2010 and January 2011 and one count of using abusive words against him on May 15, 2013 - will be taken into consideration during sentencing.

Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sarah Ong told District Judge Lim Tse Haw that Mr Chan started his six-month internship at Encore in May 2010 and drew a monthly salary of $500.

When his internship ended, Lee re-employed him with no increase in pay.

SLAPPED

In January 2013, Lee slapped Mr Chan once on his face after he felt that the younger man had failed to neatly arrange some software files on a computer.

The following month, angry that Mr Chan had failed to correctly answer a customer's request, Lee punched him on the left side of his face a few times.

He then pushed him, causing the younger man to fall off his chair.

On May 14, 2013, Lee grabbed Mr Chan's chin and forcefully pulled it back after finding out that he had forgotten to delete some files from a database.

Lee became angry with him again the next day after going through a conversation log between Mr Chan and a customer.

DPP Ong said: "The accused felt that Calvin had failed to perform his work satisfactorily and questioned Calvin about his work.

"When Calvin could not provide the accused with what the accused deemed to be a satisfactory explanation, the accused became increasingly agitated and started to shout at Calvin."

Lee then punched him on the left side of his head before slapping him three times.

An intern, Amos Yeo, 25, who was sitting nearby, recorded that incident on his mobile phone.

The clip was played in court yesterday.

It showed Lee standing beside a seated Mr Chan, berating him, before hitting the younger man who did not retaliate.

Mr Yeo was seen trying to intervene at least twice by asking Lee to calm down. Lee ignored the intern and continued the abuse. The court heard that Mr Chan made a police report about his ordeal four days later.

He went to Jurong Polyclinic on May 20, 2013 and a medical report stated that he was feeling some pain on his head.

Lee, who is represented by lawyers Sunil Sudheesan and Diana Ngiam, will be back in court on Sept 14.

For each count of voluntarily causing hurt, he can be jailed up to two years and fined up to $5,000.


This article was first published on Aug 19, 2015.
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