Man jailed for licking and spitting at police

A 46-year-old Frenchman was jailed for 11 months and fined S$1,000 (US$741) at a Singapore court after pleading guilty to harassing a taxi driver and assaulting two police officers in June last year.

The defendant Nicolas Alexandre Arvieux, who was reportedly jobless, faced a total of 10 charges, namely four counts of assaulting public servants, two counts of wounding public servants with intent, one count of theft, and three counts of violations under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the Lianhe Wanbao reported on Monday.

Five of the charges were pressed by the prosecution, with the remaining charges taken into consideration in the sentencing.

The court heard that on June 18, 2018, an Indonesian woman and her son arrived by taxi at a residential building on Shenton Way. The defendant saw that the woman walked into and out of the lobby of the building with several suitcases, putting them into the trunk of the taxi by herself.

The man came forward and questioned the taxi driver for not helping the passenger with her bags, and an argument soon escalated. The defendant then threw the woman’s bags to the ground and ordered the taxi driver to pick them up.

While he proceeded to try and shut down the engine of the taxi, the defendant began filming the incident using his mobile phone.

The driver sought help from the building’s security guard, who called the police.

Arvieux, who reportedly tried to flee the scene, was stopped by two police officers. He resisted and assaulted the two officers by licking the nose and lips of one officer and spitting at the other.

Still resisting arrest by kicking out at the officers, the suspect was taken to a police station. A body search turned up a quantity of marijuana, which the man claimed to have received as a gift from a friend a month or so earlier.

A blood test confirmed that he had smoked marijuana an hour or two prior to the incident. Arvieux was sentenced to 11 months in jail and fined S$1,000.