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SINGAPORE – In the middle of an argument with his wife, a man took a kitten that came up to him to get his attention and threw it against a closet, causing his head to bleed.
Rico Wong Wei Wei then picked up the injured kitten and threatened his wife, before throwing him in front of her. Later, assuming the kitten was dead, he dumped it in the garbage dump on his 11th floor.
Animal cruelty was not the only charge that Wong, 30, pleaded guilty to on Thursday (October 22). The then-unemployed father of two also admitted stealing a 17-year-old student’s phone and savings, and threatening his wife, who had issued a protection order against him.
Three other charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration for sentencing.
Wong was sentenced to three years, six months and 10 weeks in jail, with six strokes of the baton. He was also banned from having pets for a year.
His attorney, Jonathan Wong, raised his “difficult” past in mitigation, but the prosecution said Wong’s past crimes showed only the escalation of his criminal life.
Wong was convicted of robbery in 2006 and mischief, causing damages of more than $ 500, in 2009. He was sentenced to periods of reformative training for these two crimes, but Wong committed theft again in 2016 and was jailed for 14 months.
Despite an increasingly severe sentence, the defendants proceeded to commit a crime in flagrant disregard of the law. He was fully aware of the illegality of his actions, “said Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Ling, who called for a more severe penalty to be imposed on Wong.
Threatened, extorted money and mobile phone from teenager
On June 25 of last year, around 3 p.m., Wong was on the top deck of a double-decker bus and saw the 17-year-old victim using his phone.
As he had a black Karambit knife in his pocket, Wong formed a plan to rob him by showing the victim the knife and demanding the phone.
He carried out his plan and demanded the phone. When the victim asked if he could give money instead, Wong said he wanted $ 1,000 in cash.
The victim agreed and they got off at Block 101 of Yishun Avenue 5. Wong demanded the phone and the victim obeyed. The couple then went to a nearby POSB ATM where Wong forced the victim to withdraw $ 500 in cash.
While Wong said he wanted $ 1,000, the victim informed him that his withdrawal limit was $ 500. Wong later said that he would not return the victim’s phone.
The victim promised to give Wong the remaining $ 500 the next day, however, Wong refused and kept the phone and the cash. Wong wanted to reformat the phone and accompanied the victim home to retrieve her Apple ID and password. He waited on the empty deck while the victim retrieved his data and handed it over to him.
Wong then returned the victim’s SIM card and left. Later, Wong sold the phone to a second-hand mobile phone store for $ 720.
DPP Ling noted that the victim was an adolescent in the early years of his life.
“The victim is not a businessman, he is a young student who has a credit limit of $ 500, the defendant extorted the total sum and proceeded to take the phone and $ 500 that he did not return and took everything from him,” said the DPP. .
The quarrel with the wife led to the death of a kitten
On May 4 of last year, around 3 am, Wong had a fight with his wife over financial issues. His wife, 27, had issued a personal protection order against Wong on January 22, 2018.
While he was in his room, Wong’s two-month-old gray kitten, which he had collected in the Woodlands, approached him. Annoyed, Wong lost his temper. He picked up the kitten and threw it against a closet in the living room. The kitten’s head began to bleed.
Then he took the kitten and said to his wife, “Look at this for yourself.” He then threw the kitten to the ground in front of his wife, causing his blood to splatter. Then she said, “If I can do this, I don’t care,” which made the woman fearful.
About 15 minutes later, the kitten stopped moving. Later that day, the defendant threw the kitten into a garbage bag before dumping it in the landfill.
On the animal cruelty charge, NParks prosecutor Mohamad Packer said that even if the kitten had not died from Wong’s violent behavior, he would have died from being dumped in the garbage dump.
