Singapore:
A 48-year-old man in Singapore was fined 2,000 dollars by a court today for punching his wife's face multiple times, causing injuries that included a broken nose.
Ong Kim Huat was fined after he pleaded guilty to one count of assault, The Straits Times reported.
Ong and his 41-year-old wife were in their Yishun flat at around 11 pm on March 17 last year when they started quarrelling.
His lawyer Luke Lee told District Judge Luke Tan that the quarrel broke out after the couple's older son was handed over to Ong's sister.
"During the dispute, the victim took a fruit knife and told the accused to kill her. The victim held the knife such that its blade was pointing towards herself. The accused ignored the victim... the dispute ended and the victim put the knife away," Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Yanying said.
But soon after, Ong picked up a cane and used it to hit his wife's back. He then rained blows on her face, causing her nose to bleed.
"During the course of investigations, the accused claimed that he had caned and punched the victim to send her a message that her use of a knife during the earlier dispute was wrong," said the deputy public prosecutor.
The injured woman later went to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital where she was found to be suffering from a broken nose and a 1 cm cut over her right eye. She also alerted the police, the court heard.
Lee told the court today that his client's marriage is "still subsisting and happy". He added that the assault was a one-off incident and that the couple's son will be returned to his parents soon.
Before handing out the sentence, Judge Tan noted that the wife has since forgiven her attacker and the couple have also reconciled, the paper said.
For assault, Ong could have been jailed for up to two years and fined up to 5,000 dollars.
