Singapore woman admits ‘vicious’ hotpot attack that permanently scarred man

The 33-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty on Tuesday to voluntarily causing grievous hurt by means of a heated substance.

Another charge for voluntarily causing hurt to the same victim by slapping him three times on the face will be taken into account when Lim returns to court on January 25 for sentencing.

The court heard that sometime before 11pm on April 19, 2022, Lim got into an argument with the victim, Martin Boey, at the opening of a bar called FML Bar in Prinsep Street.

Boey had allegedly damaged Lim’s mobile phone during an argument between the pair.

This was when Lim slapped Boey out of anger before they moved out of the bar to talk things out.

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After speaking to the police, who were called to the scene, Lim returned to the bar to continue drinking while Boey left with two of his friends and his girlfriend to have supper at a nearby hotpot restaurant.

When Lim’s husband arrived at the bar, Lim told him what happened between her and Boey.

As she became angry again while talking about the incident, Lim wanted to confront the victim once more.

Her husband tried to stop her but she insisted and left to confront Boey at the eatery, Uranus Restaurant.

At about 11.40pm, Lim entered the restaurant and walked up to the table where Boey was seated with his friends.

She then flipped the pot of boiling soup onto the victim, causing it to spill onto Boey’s lower torso and lower limbs, as he was seated.

In excruciating pain, Boey immediately got up from his chair to try to remove his T-shirt but slipped on the soup contents on the floor and fell, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Santhra Aiyyasamy.

As he lay on the floor, Boey’s girlfriend and friend helped him to remove his T-shirt and pulled down his pants and underwear to his lower thighs.

Closed-circuit television footage of the incident was shown in court where Lim could be seen standing by the table after flipping the hotpot, pointing her finger at him and saying something angrily.

Boey lost consciousness for a while and made his way to the toilet to try to treat his burn wounds with water after he regained consciousness.

He was later taken to Singapore General Hospital where he was assessed to have sustained burns to 29 per cent of his body with superficial, partial and full thickness burns of the abdomen, both legs and around the genitals.

Boey had to undergo skin grafting on four occasions and was eventually discharged on May 18, 2022 with 15 days of hospitalisation leave.

He was also seen by psychiatrists for post traumatic stress because of the incident.

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Seeking a jail term of between five-and-a-half and six years, Santhra argued that a large amount of heated substance was poured onto Boey, which covered a wider surface area of his body as liquid was difficult to control.

“The vicious nature of the accused’s attack caused extensive injuries to the victim, causing scarring that will be permanent and something that he has to deal with throughout his lifetime,” Santhra said.

She added that Lim’s act of throwing the boiling soup towards Boey was fully deliberate, sudden and unexpected, rendering Boey unable to react or take any defensive measures.

“The potential harm to the victims’ friends seated at the same table was also high but fortunately, they escaped without any injury,” Santhra said.

Anyone guilty of voluntarily causing grievous hurt could be given life imprisonment, or up to 15 years’ jail and caned or fined.