• Maria Isabel Lluen Saenz’s then-boyfriend had cheated on her during trips to Batam, Indonesia
• She confronted him and he confessed but tried to make amends and proposed to marry her
• A week later, they argued and she threw his belongings from their 50th-storey condominium unit
• The couple have since gotten married

SINGAPORE — A week after her boyfriend confessed to cheating on her, Maria Isabel Lluen Saenz told him she no longer wanted to be with him and threw some of his belongings from the balcony of their 50th-storey condominium unit in Marina Bay.

They included a television, sound bar and speaker, all of which were severely damaged from the impact. No one was struck or injured.

Saenz, who recently resigned from her teaching role at the Canadian International School here, has since tied the knot with him.

The Peruvian national, 49, was sentenced to seven weeks’ jail on Tuesday (Oct 19) for committing the killer litter offence in the wee hours of Feb 28 last year.

She pleaded guilty in a district court to one charge of endangering the personal safety of others by a rash act.

WHAT HAPPENED

The couple had been together for at least two years, and moved into the V at Shenton condominium along Shenton Way eight months before the incident.

The court heard that Saenz found out about her boyfriend’s infidelity on Feb 21 last year when he had gone on a trip to Batam, Indonesia.

He was uncontactable until the following day, when he admitted that he had been cheating on her during trips to Batam.

He returned to Singapore shortly afterwards and said he wanted to marry her, but she told him she did not want to talk to him.

Over the following week, he attempted to patch things up with her and followed through with his promise to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

In the hours before the incident, they watched a movie at VivoCity shopping mall and had dinner at a restaurant where they shared two bottles of wine. She asked him for details about the woman he had had the affair with, and he told her.

After taking a taxi back to their unit, she accused him of lying and told him to leave.

Defence counsel Anil Singh Sandhu told the court: “That’s where Maria reasoned with him that she was calling off their relationship due to his infidelity and told him to leave. He objected to her demands and that’s when Maria raised her voice.

“It’s very unfortunate that (he) lost his temper and assaulted her. He punched her on the facial region… That's when she started moving his things to the balcony and a struggle ensued.”

The court further heard that when Saenz began moving his belongings to the balcony, her boyfriend told her it was going to rain and that he wanted to move the television into the unit.

Saenz replied that she did not care and threw it over the balcony.

She also broke his sound bar against the balcony railing and threw it over. She then tossed a speaker over, which shattered in pieces on the road below.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Andre Ong told the court that Saenz was aware of how dangerous her actions were but did them anyway.

Her boyfriend then packed his belongings and left the unit, before the condominium’s security supervisor approached him and said that the police were arriving.

Security officers from the neighbouring Singapore Chinese Orchestra building also went over and complained about a broken television beside their van.

Saenz has since made restitution of S$1,000 to him.

HUSBAND HAS CHANGED FOR THE BETTER: LAWYER

While referring to other killer litter cases that have come before the courts, DPP Ong noted that the items Saenz had thrown were much larger than shoe racks, potted plants or shoes, for example.

They posed a “high degree of danger to human life” and it was “merely fortuitous” that no one was injured or killed, the prosecutor added, in seeking at least eight weeks’ jail.

In mitigation, Mr Singh said Saenz first came to Singapore in 2010 to teach on a part-time basis at United World College before getting hired full-time at the Canadian International School. She was an educator for 24 years and maintained a clean record throughout her life, he added.

The defence counsel also said that Saenz’s now-husband “has changed for the better but his conduct was very much left to be desired” at the time of the offence.

The lawyer added that they are in a “much better place now” and Saenz’s husband is devoted to her. She will be repatriated and likely cannot teach again, and they will both leave Singapore after she serves her jail term.

In sentencing Saenz, District Judge Ng Cheng Thiam said that a high fine, which Mr Singh sought, was “wholly inadequate” even if it was the maximum.

Saenz will begin serving her sentence on Thursday and remains out on bail. Her husband was in court with her.

She could have been jailed for up to six months or fined up to S$2,500, or both.