Just two weeks after he was sentenced to a three weeks’ jail for assaulting a taxi driver, 34-year old Dutchman Dino Petrus Johannes van Deijzen saw his sentence increased to three months.
The deputy public prosecutor had appealed the original sentence, saying the judge in that case, District Judge Imran Abdul Hamid, seemed to have been convinced by van Deijzen’s portrayal of himself as a victim.
The Dutchman, a design executive, had claimed that the taxi driver, Me Ee Kah Ling, had also hit him, resulting in the former losing consciousness.
Justice Imran was reported to have “noted that the victim had also engaged in a scuffle with van Deijzen and traded blows, which would have explained the blunt force trauma suffered by the accused.”
However, justice Tay rejected this.
He said Mr van Deijzen’s claims were “convenient excuses to downplay his use of inexcusable violence” against Mr Ee, 42.
Further, justice Tay noted that Mr van Deijzen was not remorseful and that there were neither an offer of compensation to Mr Ee noran apology from the Dutchman.
Mr van Deijzen and his girlfriend were reportedly intoxicated when they hailed and boarded Mr Ee’s cab at Dunlop Street at almost 1am on 21 October.
They asked to be ferried to blk 538 in Ang Mo Kio.
When the taxi reached the destination, Mr van Deijzen’s girlfriend vomited in the taxi.
Mr Ee then asked the couple to leave the car and asked for the fare.
The couple, however, ignored him and walked away without paying.
At this point, Mr Ee threatened to call the police, and was retrieving his phone from his taxi when Mr van Deijzen pounced on him, slammed the door and punched Mr Ee.
Me Ee tried to escape and ran away, but Mr van Deijzen gave chase and pushed him to the ground, and continued to punch and kick Mr Ee.
The heinous act was caught by the in-vehicle CCTV of Mr Ee’s taxi.
Also in June, National University of Singapore (NUS) law professor, Sundram Peter Soosay, 43, has been found guilty of assaulting a taxi driver while drunk.
Mr Soosay, who is a Singapore permanent resident and has been working at NUS since 2008, was lambasted by District Judge Victor Yeo in court.
Judge Yeo said Mr Soosay’s testimony was “riddled with hindsight reasoning, convenient conjecture and hypothesis”.
Judge Yeo then sentenced the law professor to four months jail and ordered him to compensate the taxi driver, 71-year old Sun Chun Hua. (See here.)
