Beautician jailed for punching 60-year-old female colleague repeatedly, causing fractured nose
A beauty salon worker has been sentenced to three months’ jail for punching her 60-year-old female colleague repeatedly, causing her to suffer a fractured nose.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the accused, Wang Li Na (transliterated), is a 42-year-old Chinese national and pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt.
At the time of the offence, Wang worked as a beautician at True Harmony at City Link Mall.
The victim, Sun Min Ling (transliterated), was Wang’s colleague and worked as a receptionist at the beauty salon.
Unhappy with colleague’s arrangement
The incident happened on February 11 at around 2.30pm. Both women were working at the salon at the time. As their supervisor was absent, Sun was temporarily in charge of the salon’s operations, including arranging appointments and assigning beauticians to customers.
Wang was serving a customer and had given her a free sample of massage oil. As Wang had only recently joined the salon, Sun approached her and asked why she had done so.
Wang explained that she wanted to promote the massage oil to the customer. Sun agreed and allowed her to continue.
Shortly afterwards, another customer arrived and requested Wang’s services. As Wang was still promoting the massage oil, Sun assigned another beautician to serve the customer.
Wang was unhappy with the arrangement, saying that Sun should have helped her sell the massage oil so that she could attend to the second customer immediately. She also accused Sun of deliberately making things difficult for her.
The two women began arguing. During the dispute, Wang hurled vulgarities at Sun, who then asked Wang whom she was swearing at.
Punched colleague repeatedly resulting in fractured nose
They continued arguing as they moved towards the back of the shop. The dispute quickly escalated into a physical confrontation, with Wang repeatedly punching Sun in the face.
Another female colleague heard a loud commotion coming from the back of the shop and went to investigate. She witnessed the assault and saw Sun attempting to protect herself with her hands.
The colleague immediately intervened and separated the two women.
After being punched repeatedly, Sun’s nose began bleeding and she had difficulty standing. She subsequently called the police for help.
The victim went to Raffles Hospital that night for treatment. A CT scan revealed that she had suffered a fractured nose, and she was given five days of medical leave.
Sentenced to 3 months’ jail
Police arrested Wang on April 21. She was remanded after being charged as she was unable to post bail and has remained in custody since.
In mitigation, Wang’s lawyer said she had not initiated the confrontation and did not intend to cause the victim serious injury.
The lawyer said Wang had lost control in the heat of the argument and under the pressure of having to serve multiple customers at the same time. She had not anticipated that her actions would result in the victim suffering a fractured nose.
The lawyer also pointed out that despite suffering a fractured nose, the victim retained normal movement in her limbs and was given only five days of medical leave. He therefore urged the court to impose a lighter sentence.
The prosecution pointed out that the victim’s fractured nose constituted “serious hurt”, noting that the nose is a relatively vulnerable part of the body.
They added that Wang had verbally abused the victim first, escalating the dispute before repeatedly assaulting her. The attack was sustained and one-sided, and only stopped when another colleague intervened and separated the two women.
The prosecution submitted that a jail term of three to three-and-a-half months would be appropriate.
The judge ultimately sentenced Wang to three months’ jail and ordered her to pay about $2,175 in compensation, with four days’ imprisonment in default of payment.
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