The list of occupational hazards for a football player could go on and on: injuring yourself, being injured by another player, getting injured from overenthusiastic fans who hug you too tightly…
And the newest addition: the threat of murder from someone 10,000 km away and with no plausible means of approaching you, according to The Straits Times.
EPL Player & Family Threatened by S’porean Teen
Derek Ng De Ren, 19, clearly wasn’t paying attention to classes against cyberbullying in school. Or maybe he did, which was why he didn’t cyberbully a fellow student.
Instead, he directed his online vitriol to English Premier League (EPL) football player Neal Maupay—who plays as a forward for Brighton—last June and July, after he had injured fellow player Bernd Leno from Arsenal.
According to court papers, Ng sent Maupay messages threatening to harm him and his family, including ones that read:
“You think you will get away for injuring Leno? No way in hell bruv… But don’t worry you will be safe you won’t be hurt. It’s more fun watching you feel pain when your loved ones go through suffering.”
Clearly, Leno was Ng’s favourite player. Also clearly, Ng thought he was some supervillain, instead of a 19-year-old chao recruit.
Well, unlike a supervillain, he has no sense of planning or awareness of current affairs. Maupay and his family were in the UK at the time, and getting from Singapore to the UK or vice versa in July 2020 would be… unrealistic.
We don’t know about you, but we don’t think “murdering a football player and his family for injuring my favourite player” would be a reason for travel looked favorably upon by UK immigration.
On 26 June 2020, he is even said to have issued the threat that “Your family will be attacked later in the day, just watch.”
Why would he give a time to a “planned attack” that he couldn’t carry out? It’s just going to show he’s bluffing. Novice.
His online abuse ended with the message, “You think by reporting my account you’re safe? I will kill you and your family.”
Well, turns out Maupay is safe after all. The EPL filed an official police complaint last August after tracing the stream of online abuse to Singapore, and Ng was promptly brought to court on harassment charges.
He was charged on Monday (3 May), and his case will be revisited on 31 May.
Ng intends to plead guilty. For each harassment charge, he can be imprisoned for up to six months and fined up to S$5,000.
Feature Image: Instagram (@nealmaupay)