SINGAPORE, May 16 — A woman who threatened to kill the tenants of a room in her Holland Drive apartment with a 33cm-long knife was sentenced to eight weeks' jail yesterday (May 15).

Li Kun, 39, earlier pleaded guilty in March to a charge of criminal intimidation of the tenants, a couple aged 30 and 26.

A second similar charge was taken into consideration during the sentencing of the China national, who had been working as a beautician.

What happened

At about 6.30am on October 20, 2021, Soo Zu Liang and Teo Yuen Yee, then aged 26 and 30 respectively, were sleeping in their room when they were woken by Li who had returned home drunk, court documents prepared by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Yohanes Ng showed.

The couple were tenants in Li's apartment where they have been renting one room for about four months under an agreement struck with Li's husband.

They heard loud banging sounds and Li shouting from the living room.

Teo also heard Li mention that she was holding a knife and would wait for the two of them to leave their room to “kill them both”.

Although the door to their room was locked, Teo was worried for their safety, so she told Soo to call the police.

A review of the camera footage in the home revealed that after Li retrieved a 33cm-long knife from the kitchen, she was then seen pacing around the house, DPP Ng said.

On several occasions, she waved the knife while uttering threats in Mandarin, which translated to, “I am holding the knife and waiting for him to come out and stab him to death” and “I will stab whoever comes out”.

At the same time, Li could be seen aggressively knocking on the couple's room door with the knife. She also scratched the door with the knife.

After Li was arrested, investigations revealed that she had a blood alcohol level of 88mg of alcohol in every 100ml of blood.

It was not stated in court documents when the blood test was taken. The legal limit for driving is 80mg/100 ml.

After Li pleaded guilty in March, District Judge Marvin Bay called for a report to assess if she was suitable for a mandatory treatment order — a community sentencing option offered to offenders suffering from mental conditions that contributed to their offence.

However, the report from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), submitted yesterday, found no such contribution.

Li's lawyer Amarjit Singh from Amarjit Sidhu Law Corporation still urged the court to consider a lighter sentence for his client, taking into account the IMH report.

Singh noted that although the report did not find any causal link to the incident from any diagnosed condition, some weight ought to be given to Li's behaviour during that period because she had been experiencing “major depressive episodes”.

However, in delivering his sentence, District Judge Marvin Bay said that the incident is “beyond dispute” given the existence of closed-circuit television footage that was taken from the premises.

Deterrence remained the “predominant consideration” when deciding the appropriate sentence, the judge added.

For threatening criminal intimidation to cause death or grievous hurt, Li could have been jailed for up to 10 years or fined, or both. ― TODAY