SINGAPORE, June 20 — A teenager repeatedly punched his mother so forcefully that her lip started bleeding and she suffered a fractured rib. Later, he took a chopper, held it near her chest and threatened to kill the woman.
The teenager, now aged 16, pleaded guilty yesterday to three counts of causing hurt to his mother and one count of criminal intimidation in incidents that occurred at their home in October and November last year.
The court heard that the boy started assaulting his mother regularly in 2019 when he was aged 12 or 13 because he was hot-tempered and had anger management issues.
The mother did not report any of the assaults to the police, and did so only during the chopper incident on Nov 24 last year.
The youth and his mother cannot be named due to a court order.
The offender is set to return to court on Aug 2 for sentencing pending a report on his suitability for probation.
What happened
The court heard that the boy did not have a close relationship with his father and older brother and had minimal interaction with them. He communicated mostly with his mother.
From some time in 2019, he would typically physically assault his mother once every two to three weeks and occasionally tell his mother to “go and kill herself”.
He also had poor sleep habits. After school, he would sleep until 8pm or 9pm then wake to play mobile games and do his homework until the wee hours. This left him sleepy at school.
The teenager’s parents sought help and were referred by the Ministry of Social and Family Development to Fei Yue Family Service Centre where he received counselling.
He was later referred to the Institute of Mental Health where they assessed that he was struggling with anxiety alongside relationship difficulties with his parents, academic stress and body image issues.
Even though the counselling sessions were helping to improve his situation, the teenager eventually stopped attending them from December in 2021.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kwang Jia Min told the court that on the night of Oct 17 last year, the teenager stayed up late till 5am to study for his GCE O-Level examinations.
When he woke at about 10am, he got angry with his mother for not waking him up earlier since he had an English test that day.
He punched her several times on her back, which caused her pain.
After this, his mother decided to make an appointment on Nov 4 for her son to meet the school’s counsellor.
To ensure that he woke up on time, she set alarms to go off at 15-minute intervals starting from 10.30am.
However, this only angered her son who smashed the alarm clock.
Unsure with how to handle him, the mother consulted the counsellor who told her to leave the house to prevent further engagement with the teenager who might retaliate violently, DPP Kwang said.
She attended the counselling session herself and when she returned home, the teenager asked why she did not wake him up.
He then punched his mother several times in her left rib cage area, her left eye, the back of her head and mouth. As a result, she sustained a rib fracture and a bleeding inner lip.
Threatened mother with chopper
On the afternoon of Nov 24, the teenager and his mother were talking about what school he should attend after his O Levels.
He got agitated with her when she could not answer his questions and picked up a hard-cover report book to hit her once on the back of her head before using his fist to punch her head and left cheek.
His mother ran to lock herself in her bedroom but he knocked on her door repeatedly asking her to open the door. She refused.
The teenager’s older brother heard the commotion but did not offer help.
It was then that the mother called the police.
In the meantime, the teenager found his mother’s bedroom door key and went into her room to confront her, asking her why it was “so difficult” for her to understand him.
When he did not receive a response, he grew even more agitated, pulled his mother into the kitchen where he took a chopper with a 16.5cm blade, went to his brother’s room and said, “I will kill you”, as he brought the chopper close to her chest area.
The police arrived shortly after the teenager returned the chopper on his brother’s advice and went into his room.
The prosecution suggested that District Judge Carol Ling should seek reports for the youth’s suitability for both reformative training and probation.
However, defence lawyer Justin Ng from Kalco Law LLC urged the judge to seek a report on probation only, because his client had stopped offending since the proceedings started.
Ng added that the teenager is preparing for his A Levels as a private candidate and would have support from his father and older brother, with whom he is now living.
If the teenager is found to be suitable for probation, he would be free to carry on his daily activities but would have to comply with a list of conditions for rehabilitation and be supervised by a probation officer for between six months and three years.
Reformative training is a harsher penalty that involves a regimented rehabilitation programme for offenders under 21 who commit relatively serious crimes.
For causing hurt, the teenager could be jailed for up to five years or fined up to S$10,000 (RM34,546), or both.
For criminal intimidation, he could be jailed for up to 10 years or fined, or both. —TODAY
