An Australian man is facing 11 charges, and a possible caning, after he resisted arrest and assaulted police officers at Singapore Airport. The drunken scuffle was caught on video and has since gone viral.
Jason Peter Darragh, 44, was arrested by six police officers at Singapore's Changi Airport on April 20, after he pushed an officer to the ground.
The video was uploaded to YouTube on May 6 by Ben Bonifant, who took the video as he waited for his girlfriend to locate her passport.
“Police officers got a rude awakening when this bloke decides to pick a fight with them and resists arrest,” he wrote in the video’s description. “Oh and he loses his shoe.”
The footage starts as two police officers approach the man to talk to him, after he reportedly threw another man’s phone on the ground. Darragh responds by putting his headphones on and dancing.
“Don’t touch me, f**khead,” he tells the officers as they try to escort him away. Darragh pushes them away and tries to escape. The officers follow him and one of them hits him with his cane.
The three scuffle and Darragh knocks one of the officers to the ground. Onlookers and security guards intervene to help the officers, but they are no match for Darragh, who continues to resist.
"I'll knock your f***ing head off," he says.
The Australian appeared in court on Saturday and was charged with 11 charges including assaulting a police officer, using vulgar language, committing mischief, using criminal force and two counts of public annoyance, the Strait Times reports.
Not all the charges stem from the airport incident. It was revealed in court that Darragh was found drunk and “incapable of taking care of himself,” at Orchard Towers – home to Singapore's 'Four floors of whores' – on April 26.
He also caused annoyance at a taxi rank on May 1, and was reportedly drunk at McGettigan’s CQ Bar in Clarke Quay the next day.
Darragh’s bail was set at $20,000 and he is scheduled to be back in court Friday.