Jail, cane for man who slashed sister-in-law

A man who used a knife to slash his sister-in-law, causing her to become permanently disfigured, was jailed and ordered to be given six strokes of the cane yesterday.

Tyler Jerome Nanda, formerly known as Nandakumar Ramachandran, 42, admitted to causing grievous hurt to Ms Reavanthi Manogara, 27, his brother's wife, and breaching an expedited order twice by using family violence on his wife and stepson.

Tyler had been living with his brother and his family in Compassvale Drive on March 25 last year when he had an argument with Ms Reavanthi.

He had been unhappy that the victim appeared at a family court hearing which involved his former wife, even though he had told her not to go.

During the dispute, Tyler took a 25cm-long knife from the kitchen and subsequently attacked her.

He admitted that he had been drinking that afternoon and was feeling slightly tipsy during the incident at about 8pm.

In the earlier case, Deputy Public Prosecutor Fong Jing Heng said Tyler came home drunk on Aug 19, 2012 and kept knocking on the bedroom door of his wife, Madam Merelene Jackson Miranda, 48, but she did not respond.

He yelled at his wife and told her not to purposely ignore him.

When Madam Miranda's 21-year-old son from a previous marriage came to check what was happening, Tyler told him to go back to his room and sleep.

But when his stepson told him to stop banging the door, Tyler shouted and hurled vulgarities at him. His wife then called the police.

Tyler, who has similar convictions, was jailed a total of three years and 10 months yesterday plus caning.

Three other charges were taken into consideration.

This article was published on April 15 in The Straits Times.

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