Australian man sentenced to over 5 years in Singapore prison for wine bottle killing of Malay father

Australian man sentenced to over 5 years in Singapore prison for wine bottle killing of Malay father
Image: 7News Australia
Michelle De Pacina
April 8, 2022
An Australian man was sentenced by a Singaporean court to jail for five-and-a-half years for killing a Malaysian Singaporean man and injuring his wife after throwing a wine bottle at them. 
Andrew Gosling, 49, threw the empty bottle from the seventh floor of his apartment at a family barbeque dinner two floors below at the Spottiswoode building on Aug. 18, 2019. 
The bottle hit 73-year-old Nasiari Sunee in the head and injured his wife, Manisah Sitri. Sunee, a father of four, was knocked unconscious and died in the hospital the next day.
Gosling surrendered himself to the police on Aug. 30. During the investigation, Gosling admitted that he was drinking and was angry over the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 88 Australians, among others. He identified the family below him to be Muslims and decided to “startle” them before yelling what prosecutors deemed “crude, religiously charged vulgarities.”
Gosling’s action was regarded as an act of religious hostility toward Muslims. Judge Victor Yeo Khee Eng sentenced him to four years in jail for causing death by a rash act and another 18 months for causing grievous hurt by a rash act.
“The accused’s conduct of deliberately throwing a wine bottle is egregious and akin to a killer litter offense,” Eng said after announcing Gosling’s sentence. “Such offenses could undermine Singapore’s religious and racial harmony and must not be tolerated. Interracial harmony in Singapore is sacrosanct.”
Gosling had been living in Singapore for only two months and was seeking employment at the time of the incident in 2019. His parents, Ian and Pamela Gosling, found his action to be “completely out of character.”
The son of Nasiari, Muhammad, described his father as “a great man, who leads by example.”
“He was healthy so for him to pass on in that manner was shocking,” he said. “It’s hard to accept the loss of our father, but life has to go on. We are really glad that finally there is a closure.”
When Gosling asked to meet the Nasiari family after he is released from prison, Muhammad said, “We are more than happy to meet him.”
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