by Taurus on Fri 30 Jul, 2010 8:09 am 
SHE was devastated when her husband told her that he wanted a divorce seven months into their marriage.
Huynh Thanh Ha, 20, took methamphetamine because she was in a "bad mood".
The Vietnamese national later went on a rampage that lasted for more than half an hour. She lay down in the middle of the road, causing traffic to come to a sudden halt.
Then she waylaid a taxi and climbed on top of the vehicle, jumping, kicking and hammering the roof with her legs and fists.The housewife continued creating a ruckus even after the police arrived.
Yesterday, she was jailed six months after pleading guilty to two charges, drug consumption and committing a rash act.
Another two charges, behaving in a disorderly manner and committing mischief, were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Although her husband, Mr. Tan Thiam Chye, 39, bailed her out after her arrest and hired a lawyer for her, he told The New Paper that he is determined to get a divorce.
Accompanying his wife to court yesterday, Mr. Tan, an odd-job labourer, said their marriage was a mistake from the start.
Speaking in Mandarin, he said: "I didn't want to get married. It was my mother who pressured me to marry her.
Differences
"We are very different in terms of character, culture and our way of life. But she said she loved me too much to let go.
"She told me that she will never sign the (divorce) papers."
Huynh committed the offences on February 16 at about 8.45 a.m.
Mr. Tan said he had told her the night before that he wanted a divorce and that it would be better for both of them.
"Their marriage had been stormy," he said.
Mr. Tan said his wife has a stubborn streak and can be unreasonable at times.
He said: "We often argued and fought over trivial things. Whenever we fought, she would insist I was in the wrong while she was right."
The couple met in January last year through friends. Huynh was in Singapore to attend to some personal matters.
After dating for six months, they married on July 12 in a simple ceremony. They hosted a buffet lunch at his parents' flat after that.
Huynh, who is from Ho Chi Minh City, was then 19.
Said Mr. Tan: "Her family is quite well off. Her mother used to own a karaoke lounge and her father works in Germany.
"After she married me, she behaved like a princess and refused to help my mother with the housework. She also refused to eat with my parents and wanted me to bring her meals into our room."
The couple live with Mr. Tan's aged parents in a three-room flat. His brother and four sisters have all settled down elsewhere.
But Mr. Tan said he's the sort who is "not suitable for marriage".
"I'm the carefree type. I wanted to stay single for the rest of my life, but my mum kept nagging me and would arrange blind dates for me," he said.
"When I started going out with Huynh, my mum kept pestering me to marry her." So he gave in and tied the knot with Huynh, who is 19 years younger.
But there was no marital bliss and he wanted out.
In her mitigation, Huynh's lawyer, Mr. Tan Cheng Kiong, told the court that Huynh had gone out to confide in her friend, a Vietnamese girl known only as Ah Phueng, on February 15.
Huynh told Ah Phueng of her marital woes and that she was in a bad mood and had a terrible headache.
Red pill
Ah Phueng gave her a red pill and told her it would make her feel better.
Huynh took the pill and became intoxicated.
At about 8.45am the next morning, Huynh went out to the road and tried to stop passing cars along Hougang Avenue 9, near Block 662. She also banged on them.
Fifteen minutes later, a witness saw her lying down in the middle of the road near Block 951, which was about 500m away.
Huynh was then seen getting up and running to the opposite side of the road. There, she lay down on the road again.
There was some chaos as drivers had to apply their emergency brakes to avoid hitting her.
Huynh did not stop even after police officers arrived at the scene.
She gesticulated and acted aggressively, shouting at the police officers despite being given several warnings to stop.
At around 9.20am, she climbed on top of a taxi and refused to get down. She kicked and hammered the roof of the taxi, causing damage amounting to $428.
Huynh was arrested and her urine later tested positive for methamphetamine, which is commonly known as Ice, a party drug.
Her lawyer told the court that Huynh regrets taking the pill, which caused her to behave in an uncharacteristic manner.
Bickered
Yesterday, the couple sat outside the courtroom waiting for her case to be called and in those 10 minutes, they bickered again.
Mr. Tan was heard telling his wife: "Can you speak nicely?"
To which, Huynh replied in Mandarin: "Can you speak more softly... I also don't understand why I fell for you."
Huynh, who was sitting a seat away from Mr. Tan, then moved away to sit elsewhere.
When her case started, Mr. Tan refused to go into the court room.
Huynh sobbed in the dock after she was sentenced.
After her lawyer came out and told Mr. Tan her jail term, the latter got ready to leave, telling her lawyer and this reporter: "No need wait for her (to be led away), no need see her."
While her lawyer was trying to persuade Mr. Tan to see his wife before she was taken to jail, a court officer ran out and said that Huynh had asked to see Mr. Tan.
Mr. Tan was initially reluctant to go in, but he relented after her lawyer reminded him that they were man and wife.
Their meeting was over in two minutes.
When asked what they spoke about, Mr. Tan said: "She thanked me for looking after her for the past one year.
"She also asked me to help her do one last thing - to inform her mother that she has been jailed."
Earlier, before Huynh entered the court room, she had asked her husband: "Will you wait for me?"
Said Mr. Tan: "I did not answer her. I hope she understands."
For drug consumption, Huynh could have been jailed 10 years and fined $20,000.
For committing a rash act, she could have been jailed six months and fined $2,500.
