Singapore jails fired worker for emailing rape threats to former employer

A 30-year-old man in Singapore who sent sexually threatening emails to his former employer was on Tuesday jailed for six months and six weeks.

Tommy Soh Han Xuen was also given an enhanced sentence of 48 days’ imprisonment as he reoffended while out on remission.

He pleaded guilty to three charges of making insulting communication intended to cause alarm, intending to insult another person’s modesty, and attempted cheating. Five other charges were taken into consideration.

The victims’ identities are protected by court order, and details of Soh’s former workplace were redacted from court documents.

Soh worked as a delivery driver for his employer from April 29, 2020. He was fired three days later as he was caught stealing mobile phones that belonged to a vendor of the company.

Almost two years later, on February 1, 2022, Soh was at home and “feeling angry with himself over his personal problems”, the court heard.

He also felt unhappy that the company had not paid his outstanding wages of about S$300 (US$220) after he was fired.

Soh decided to send threatening emails to the company from his personal email account. In two emails titled “Threat”, he threatened to “brutally rape” all female staff of the company.

“You know who I am. Never pay salary. I am one of your ex-staff who stole handphone when doing delivery,” Soh wrote.

The staff member who opened these emails in the morning was alarmed and made a police report.

Later that afternoon, a customer service manager was checking the company’s email account as part of her job to reply to customers’ feedback.

She came across an email from Soh that was addressed to her, titled “Message from beast”. The email contained the woman’s name, and threatened to “strip [her] naked” and sexually