Jealous tourist jailed 4 months for attacking girlfriend and cops in MBS

Jealous that his girlfriend had danced with another man, a tourist from New Zealand assaulted her in their hotel room at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS).

Taputoro Meihana Deane Delamere, 33, was yesterday jailed for three months and four weeks after he pleaded guilty to one charge each for a rash act endangering the safety of others, voluntarily causing hurt, and voluntarily hurting a police officer.

Two other charges for hurting a police officer and mischief were taken into consideration.

Taputoro arrived in Singapore on Nov 13 last year with his 29-year-old girlfriend, who is also from New Zealand.

The couple, who had been dating for about nine months, went to a club on Nov 16 and the woman danced with another man, making Taputoro jealous and angry.

When they returned to their hotel room on the seventh storey of MBS at about 4am, they quarrelled and he shouted at her. He then assaulted her and smashed her phone against the wall.

Taputoro also used a chair to smash the glass panel at the balcony and tried to drag his girlfriend to the window. He wanted to force her to jump with him. The woman managed to flee from the room.

At about 5.30am, he threw two suitcases, two backpacks and one metal pole from the room. The items landed on a road nearby and nobody was injured.

At about 5.50am, the police were called to the scene and observed Taputoro from the balcony of an adjacent room, as he had locked himself in.

When he saw the officers, he shouted at them and challenged them to come and get him.

He then climbed over from the balcony via the parapet and approached the officers.

As they tried to arrest him, he assaulted them, causing one of them to fall and hit the back of his head against a glass door.

According to court documents, Taputoro's actions caused more than $8,700 in damage to the hotel room.

He had damaged the room's main door, three glass balcony panels, several chairs, a coffee table and a sprinkler head, among other items.

In mitigation, Taputoro apologised for his actions and said he had let his four children and partner down.

His sentence was backdated to Nov 22 last year, when he was held in remand.

For each count of voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from his duty, he could have been jailed for up to seven years, and fined or caned.

This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.