Jail time for tourist in drunken brawl

SINGAPORE - A British tourist is getting a taste of prison life in Singapore after committing offences while he was drunk. Rory Lee Hipgrave, 28, was sentenced to six weeks in jail and a $3,000 fine on Thursday for injuring a bartender, uttering racial slurs, fighting with bar employees and assaulting a police officer.

It started when Hipgrave tried to pay for his drinks at The Vault, a bar along South Bridge Road, at about 2.40am on Sept 15 last year.

Told he could not pay with his credit card because of technical problems, Hipgrave, an asbestos remover for ships, grew aggressive and hurled racial slurs at Derek Lin Da Quan, 27, the bar’s assistant manager. He started throwing glasses, one of which hit bartender Cheng Chung Yin, 24, on the head while another struck his ribs.

A brawl erupted between the three, which ended only when police arrived. But Hipgrave then charged at Sergeant Shahidah Hamid, who had to subdue him with her taser. A blood test found 124mg of alcohol per 100ml of Hipgrave’s blood. The legal limit for driving is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

Defence counsel Anthony Netto said his client had committed the offences on the spur of the moment. However, District Judge Jasbendar Kaur said the state Hipgrave was in after “consuming copious amounts of alcohol” was an aggravating factor.

Lin and Cheng have also been charged but have not been dealt with yet.

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