When drinks turned into a brawl

He was having drinks at the coffee shop with his friends when he got into an argument with a man.

Enraged, Goh Kim San punched the man in the face a few times.

His friend then joined in, punching the man and the men together kicked him in the stomach when he was on the ground.

The friend then grabbed a glass mug from a table and threw it at the victim. It smashed into the man's face and shattered, knocking him out cold.

He slipped into a three-day coma. For voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Mr Sivakumar Subramaniam, Goh, 56, was sentenced to 15 months' jail yesterday.

The case against his friend and co-accused Loh Weng Kei, 56, is still on-going.

The incident happened at Victoria Food Court in Geylang on Nov 23 last year.

Goh, a newspaper seller and lorry driver, Loh, an odd job worker, and a third man were having drinks when Mr Sivakumar, 43, a forklift driver, turned up at the same location for a beer at 3pm.

Two hours later, Goh became embroiled in a dispute with Mr Sivakumar.

Both Goh and Loh ended up attacking Mr Sivakumar.

When the police and Singapore Civil Defence Force arrived, they took an unconscious Mr Sivakumar to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

At the hospital, he was put on life support.

The court heard that he also suffered cuts on his lip and cheek, fractures to his face and spine and bleeding in his brain.

CAUGHT ON CCTV

He only regained full consciousness two days after the attack, and was discharged on Dec 10.

The court heard that the incident was captured by closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) at the food court.

Yesterday, Goh's lawyer said in mitigation that an intoxicated Mr Sivakumar had verbally abused and pushed Goh in the toilet prior to the incident.

District Judge Imran Abdul Hamid noted that Mr Sivakumar's injuries were very serious and that some of them could have been fatal. But he took Goh's age into account during sentencing.

This article was first published on July 2, 2014.
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