Man broke into Ex-Girlfriend’s Home and Held her Hostage

Mohamad Ridwan Ali, aged 38, was jailed for five years and nine months after he broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home and held her hostage.

He used cable ties, rope and masking tape to tie up the woman as well as her two daughters and maid.

Ali also threatened to blow up her house with a gas cylinder.

The woman’s daughters and maid were at the property in Singapore when Ali broke in at around 2:30 am on March 16, 2019.

He opened the front door, which was unlocked, and put his hand through a gap in the unit’s front gate to take a key hanging on the wall near the door.

Ali then used the key to unlock the gate, entered the unit and went into the woman’s bedroom, where the children were sleeping.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Wei Liang said that Ali knew where the key was kept through his previous relationship with the woman.

When the maid entered, he pushed her against a wardrobe, causing her to suffer a cut behind her ear and bruising to her hip.

Ali tied the children and maid up using cable ties, rope and masking tape, which he had carried with him.

After moving them to the maid’s bedroom, he took a gas cylinder from the kitchen and placed it at the entrance of the room.

He threatened to blow up the house and taped the mouths of the three victims.

The woman returned home at 3 am. Ali pushed her to the floor, held a knife to her neck and told her to keep quiet.

Ali took her to the maid’s bedroom and threatened to blow up the house if she “did anything stupid”. He then moved her to her own bedroom, where he had placed another gas cylinder, and tied her up.

While checking through her phone, Ali confronted her about a debt that she allegedly owed him and about a male friend whom she had been messaging.

He continued making threats to blow up the house by switching on the gas cylinder and exposing the flame of the lighter he was holding.

Ali then cut the cable ties and rope around the woman’s wrists. During the hostage incident, he stated that he was unhappy with what she was wearing and cut up her clothes.

DDP Lee said: “Thereafter, the victim repeatedly tried to pacify the accused by reassuring him that she would not report the incident to the authorities and that she would not contact the male friend.”

The woman also had sex with Ali in order to distract him out of fear of what he might do to her and her children.

She eventually persuaded Ali to untie the children and maid sometime after 7:30 am.

He continued to keep his ex-girlfriend hostage as he stayed with her until the next day when she told him that she needed to get the birth certificate of her eldest daughter from her office.

Ali drove her there but waited outside in his lorry.

While inside the office, the woman phoned the maid and told her to contact her ex-husband for help in lodging a police report. Ali was arrested later that day.

He pleaded guilty to one charge each relating to housebreaking and wrongful confinement, as well as to two charges of criminal intimidation. He also admitted to voluntarily causing hurt to the woman and the maid.

One other charge each of criminal intimidation and causing hurt by a rash act, as well as two other charges of wrongful confinement, were taken into consideration by District Judge Tan Jen Tse during sentencing.

District Judge Tan said that the hostage incident caused terror to his victims at their home, where they had felt safe.

On July 13, 2020, Ali was jailed for five years and nine months. He also received six strokes of the cane.