Man guilty of spitting at women

The man who spat at two women at Woodlands bus interchange last October was convicted of five charges on Wednesday.

Juraimi Kamaludin, 48, was found guilty of being a public nuisance; spitting at customer service officer Teoh Lay Peng once and pushing her out of the front door of SMRT service 950; two counts of spitting at secretary Lee Kuan Eng, 34, for a total of six times.

Juraimi, who has criminal records for mainly theft and drug-related offences, will be sentenced tomorrow, reported The Straits Times Online.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Francis Zhang Zeyi had sought a total jail term of four months and two weeks for four of the charges, plus the maximum fine of $1,000 for the public nuisance charge.

District Judge Lim Keng Yeow rejected Juraimi's defence that he did not push Ms Teoh and that she had run down the bus on her own. The judge said closed-circuit television footage showed she was forcefully ejected from the bus and fell backwards onto the platform outside the bus.

As for Ms Lee, Juraimi had admitted spitting at her after alleging that she had insulted his mother and called him "stupid Malay''. He also heard her say loudly "bloody hell'' and thought she was referring to him. Both women have denied his allegations.

The judge found that Ms Lee did not use those words as alleged at Juraimi. Even if she had used some other words or expletives, he said, these did not amount to grave and sudden provocation as his reaction was far disproportionate.

Judge Lim said there was a misunderstanding of the actions and this was unfortunate, but Juraimi had over-reacted.

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