Man pulls wife out of bed by her hair

Man pulls wife out of bed by her hair

The two men appeared in the dock next to each other in court yesterday to answer for their crimes.

Though they were strangers and their cases were not related, they had one thing in common - they were wife-beaters.

And they had pulled their wives out of bed by their hair before assaulting them.

In Ridduan Jaafar's case, he pinned his wife, Madam Shelly Lestari, against a wall and even threatened to kill her with a knife after she rejected his advances.

The restaurant assistant manager, 25, was jailed for four months while the other man, Pravin Kumar, 35, was jailed for three months.

The court heard that Ridduan was at home about 1am on Dec 13 last year when he saw a Facebook post from Madam Shelly's male colleague to her.

He became jealous and pulled her out of bed by her hair and into the living room, where he pushed her against the wall and punched her.

Madam Shelly, 30, suffered injuries to her head and lips. She was given three days of medical leave.

This was the first of three reported incidents where Ridduan physically abused her.

On Dec 15, he wanted to visit her at her workplace. When she refused to see him, he got angry and texted her profanities and threatened to throw away her belongings.

Madam Shelly asked for time off from work to rush home. When Ridduan returned home later that afternoon, he scolded her as she was packing her belongings.

Afraid that he would hit her again, she called the police and said: "My husband here causing trouble. He trying to open my door. (sic)"

FILING FOR DIVORCE

Two weeks later, at about midnight on Dec 26, Ridduan tried to have sex with her. He climbed on top of her and tried to undress her.

But Madam Shelly refused because they were in the process of filing for a divorce.

After they got into an argument, Ridduan stormed to the kitchen and grabbed a knife with a 7cm blade.

He then pushed his wife against a wall, pressed the knife against her neck and threatened to kill her.

Madam Shelly started crying.

A neighbour called the police and said: "I don't know what happened, but I heard crying and shouting in Malay and some throwing of glasses for the past 30 minutes and getting worse. (sic)"

Madam Shelly had been granted a Personal Protection Order (PPO) against Ridduan on Dec 9.

Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to one count of criminal intimidation and another of breaching the PPO by using violence against Madam Shelly.

His defence lawyer, Mr Mervyn Tan, said in mitigation that his client was sorry and regretted what he had done.

He said Ridduan had lost his temper after finding out that his wife had extramarital affairs.

Mr Tan pointed out that his client, who has a two-year-old daughter, was not a violent person and hopes to reconcile with his wife.

The New Paper visited the couple's one-room rental flat at Geylang Bahru yesterday but no one appeared to be home.

Neighbours said they overheard quarrelling several times a week.

One of them, a retiree who declined to be named, said: "Even though they were loud when they quarrelled, I couldn't hear the actual words they shouted at each other as they always kept the door closed.

"They have a little daughter who is about three years old and I feel sad for her, to be seeing her own parents violently quarrelling all the time."

Another neighbour, who also declined to be named, said the couple kept to themselves.

For criminally intimidating his wife, Ridduan could have been jailed up to two years and fined.

For breaching the PPO, he could have been jailed up to six months and/or fined up to $5,000.


This article was first published on April 14, 2015.
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