Senior citizen seals padlock with glue, assaults man with diluted bleach
An elderly recalcitrant offender who felt that the resident of a flat was being irresponsible for creating a mess in a common corridor, used superglue to seal the keyhole of a padlock to the stranger’s unit.
In an unrelated incident, Lee Ah Cheng, 76, splashed a mixture of bleach and water at his 66-year-old male friend during a dispute.
The liquid entered the younger man’s eyes, but he did not suffer any permanent injuries.
Lee was sentenced to four weeks’ jail and a fine of $1,000 on Dec 19 after he pleaded guilty to one count each of assault and committing an act of mischief.
This was not his first brush with the law.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Intan Suhaily Abu Bakar said Lee was sent to jail four times between 1972 and 2005 for violent offences, including assault and performing a rash act that endangered others.
For the current case, the court heard that he took a bottle containing the diluted bleach, which he had prepared earlier, to meet his friend at a Jurong East market on Oct 2, 2023.
At around 10pm, the two men got into a dispute over an undisclosed matter and Lee splashed the liquid at his friend’s face.
An altercation broke out and passers-by stepped in to separate the pair. Lee then went home and the police were alerted.
An ambulance took the victim to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, where he was referred to the ophthalmology department and diagnosed with a chemical injury.
Lee was arrested on Oct 2, 2023, and released on bail the next day.
Nine months later, he reoffended by committing an act of mischief involving the padlock.
At around 9pm on July 10, 2024, Lee left home and took a bus to Jurong East to meet a friend, whose particulars were not disclosed in court documents.
Lee realised he was unsure of his friend’s unit number and decided to walk around the neighbourhood in the hope of bumping into the friend.
At around 10pm, Lee took a lift to the seventh floor of a block of flats and saw that the common corridor outside one of the units was messy with several cupboards.
The DPP told the court: “Feeling angry and thinking that the owner was irresponsible, the accused took out the superglue that was inside his cigarette box and placed the (glue) onto the padlock of the gate... to seal the keyhole shut.”
Lee then went home. His actions were captured on CCTV from the victim’s unit.
Later that evening, a 76-year-old woman realised the keyhole to the padlock had been sealed when she wanted to open the gate of the flat to place some pieces of cardboard outside.
Another woman who lives in the flat then called the police.
Court documents did not disclose what happened next, but in October 2024, Lee was charged in court over the incident.
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