Stallholder who beat up 60-year-old woman after years of rivalry gets 4 months' jail

Adeline Tan
The New Paper
Nov 23, 2020

Years of bad blood between two rival stallholders culminated in one of them attacking the other, with the victim likely to suffer permanent scarring from the incident.

Both their stalls are next to each other and they sold beancurd and noodles at Mei Ling Market in Queenstown.

Last Thursday, Ling Heng Soon, 63, was given four months' jail for assaulting a 60-year-old woman.

They had a strained relationship, and things worsened in 2017 when she lodged a complaint against him over the bulky items outside his stall.

From then on, they regularly hurled vulgarities at each other but did not resort to physical violence.

On Oct 3, 2018, the victim was packing up her stall when Ling punched her face.

He grabbed her, flung her against the wall and punched her face multiple times while she was still against the wall.

She collapsed to the ground, and several passers-by intervened and tried to restrain Ling, while the victim got up and walked away. But Ling broke free, ran towards her and kicked her, causing her to fall.

The prosecution said: "While the victim lay helpless on the floor in a supine position, the accused forcefully kicked her on the face before he was pulled back by a passer-by."

The victim was taken to hospital with facial wounds, and the scars are likely to be permanent