‘Like Spiderman’: Jail for jilted man who twice broke into ex-colleague’s home, once by rope from 25th floor parapet

SINGAPORE — When a 29-year-old man’s friendship with his ex-colleague soured, he broke into her home twice in the wee hours.
On one occasion, in an act described by the judge as a “dangerous stunt like Spiderman”, Lua Eng Chau used a rope to climb onto a parapet, before entering the victim’s home on the 25th floor via the kitchen window.
On Tuesday (Aug 6), Lua was sentenced to five weeks’ jail after pleading guilty to two counts of housebreaking and one count of theft.
The victim, 25, cannot be named as there is a gag order protecting her identity.
Four other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The court heard that Lua and the woman were ex-colleagues. He had expressed his liking for her, but she chose to remain as friends.
Sometime later, however, their friendship soured and the woman ceased contact with Lua. Court documents did not state when they ceased contact.
On Feb 19 at about 2am, the accused wanted to see the victim and took a private hire taxi to her home.
As he had visited her home before, he knew that the door was left unlocked and the key to the house’s gate was kept beside the front door.
“On arriving at the unit, the accused opened the front door of the unit and took the gate key from inside the unit. He then unlocked the gate and entered the unit,” said State Prosecuting Officer Sukhdev Kaur.
“While in the unit, the accused proceeded to the victim’s room to look at her.”
As the woman was awake, she saw him staring into the room, and she shouted at him. In response, Lua ran away.
She then called the police.
A couple of months later on April 22, sometime after midnight, Lua decided to enter the woman’s home again.
Upon arriving at the housing block, he proceeded to the 27th floor and tied a rope to the hand railing before hanging it down.
He then went to the 25th floor and held onto the rope, before climbing out onto a parapet. He then entered the woman’s home via her kitchen window from the parapet.
After entering, he switched off the closed-circuit television in the living room, before attempting to open the woman’s room door.
However, as her room was locked, he decided to leave through the front door. He took the keys to the house’s digital lock on the front gate.
“At this juncture, when the accused heard footsteps in the unit, he quickly ran off bringing along the keys to the digital lock of the gate,” said Ms Kaur.
Separately, on May 8, Lua stole a weighing scale and a bottle of Perilla oil from a restaurant he used to work at, worth S$140.
Ms Kaur sought a jail term for Lua, but left it to the court’s discretion on the length. She pointed out that Lua had trespassed into the woman’s home in the early hours to intimidate her.
In his mitigation plea, Lua, who was unrepresented, acknowledged that he had caused fear and disruption to the victim and her family.
“Not only that, I caused embarrassment and disappointment to my own family,” said Lua.
He added that he is remorseful and apologetic, before pleading for leniency.
District Judge Terence Tay then asked Lua why he had committed the offence, “especially when you performed a very dangerous stunt like Spiderman”.
In response, Lua said he had “no intention of harming the victim at all”, and that he had wanted to ask for forgiveness and clear the air around a misunderstanding.
“At that point in time, I didn’t think through my actions and committed those stunts. In turn, I caused repeated fear to her and her family,” said Lua.
He added that he quit his job to reflect on his mistakes.
In sentencing, the judge said that Lua had shown remorse but that his actions were over a “sustained period of time” and had terrorised his victim.
For housebreaking, Lua faced up to three years’ jail, a fine or both.
For theft in dwelling, Lua could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.