STUDENT BEATEN ON MRT
WHY
March 18, 2009
HE WAS about to take a train seat vacated by a woman when he was pushed to the floor and beaten.
Why? Poh Yi Hao, 17, says he still doesn’t know.
The beating, he said, lasted about 20 seconds. The junior college student crouched in agony as a man kept punching him.
The man then sat on the vacated seat.
Yi Hao said the carriage was full and all the other seats were taken.
When the train stopped at the next station, Yi Hao managed to stumble out and asked for help from the SMRT staff.
The incident happened around 3pm on 6 Mar.
Yi Hao told The New Paper that he was on his way to meet his former secondary schoolmates after school.
He boarded the train at City Hall MRT station and was supposed to alight at Tanah Merah station. When he entered the train, he noticed a man standing next to him.
Yi Hao said the man was about 1.73m, had a crew cut and was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and jeans.
‘He seemed a bit weird,’ Yi Hao recalled. ‘As he moved towards two of his friends (who were standing near the door), he pushed everyone away and stepped on my feet.’
Yi Hao then saw a woman get up from her seat, which was in front of where he was standing.
Just as he was about to sit down, Yi Hao said the man pushed him to the floor.
‘Then he gave me about seven punches to the left side of my head above my ear.’
Throughout the attack, Yi Hao’s assailant did not say a word.
To shield himself from the blows, Yi Hao said he covered his face with both his hands.
Ms Angela Foo, 50, another passenger, who saw the attack, told The New Paper in Mandarin: ‘The boy was actually very smart (not to retaliate). The attacker was pretty big. You wouldn’t want to provoke him.’
Yi Hao agreed.
‘He was muscular and was fierce when he beat me. I couldn’t have subdued him so I just protected myself.’
Both Yi Hao and Ms Foo said no one else in the carriage went to his aid.
But Yi Hao does not blame them. He said: ‘Most of them were in shock.’
Ms Foo said that before the incident, Yi Hao’s alleged assailant had given up his seat to a pregnant woman, so she was shocked by his sudden change in behaviour.
Ms Foo added that she was too afraid to intervene during the attack as the man had been carrying a bag, which she feared could have contained weapons.
Felt giddy
When the train arrived at Bugis MRT station, Yi Hao, who was feeling giddy from the attack, got off. Ms Foo and her friend followed him to make sure he was okay.
They reported the incident to the station manager, who told Yi Hao to seek medical treatment and file a police report.
An SMRT spokesman confirmed that Yi Hao had reported the matter to them.
She added: ‘SMRT advises passengers who are harassed or assaulted during their train journey to report the matter to the train officer immediately by activating the Emergency Communication Button located at the side of the train door.’
Yi Hao later went to a polyclinic in Bedok to get treatment for his injuries, which he said were not serious.
He had a bruise on the left side of his head.
After the incident, he went to the Bedok North Police Centre to make a report. There, he was advised to lodge a magistrate’s complaint.
But what followed was some confusion which led Yi Hao to write to The Straits Times.
He said: ‘(The) advice was given despite the fact that I had told the woman police officer that I could identify the man easily and that there were many witnesses to the attack.
‘The police officer’s reply was that (his identification) was of no help as (the man’s) actual identity was still unknown.
‘The officer added that I should have used the emergency button to stop the train to allow the train staff to detain the assailant.
‘It is absurd that the authorities are unable to investigate an assault in public on a train, and offer little but sympathy over the incident, even if the injuries I suffered were not severe.’
But a police spokesman, replying to The New Paper, disputed this.
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