19YO Jailed & Caned for Slashing Stranger With Knife After He Refused to Buy Him Cigarettes

By
Sarah
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When someone refuses to do something for you, what’s your reaction?

Do you get frustrated?

Do you graciously find another person to help?

Whatever it is, I’m sure you wouldn’t pull a knife on them… right?

Nope.

Slashed Victim For Refusing To Buy Him Cigarettes

On Tuesday (27 Apr), 19-year-old James Teck Jing You was sentenced to three and a half years’ jail and eight strokes of the cane for causing grievous hurt and possessing a knife.

According to TODAYonline, his sentence had been backdated to 9 October 2020 after his arrest.

If you’ve forgotten about the incident, here’s what transpired on that day:

Teck, who was underaged at the time (and still is now) approached Mr Lee, asking him to buy cigarettes on his behalf from the nearby FairPrice outlet.

(P.S. The minimum legal age for the purchase of tobacco products was 20 then; as of this year, it’s been raised to 21.)

And so, Mr Lee did the correct thing: he declined and proceeded to get his temperature checked. He had also asked the staff if they could tell Teck to go away and stop following him.

That was when things took a turn for the worse.

Teck then reportedly took out a knife with a 10-cm long blade and began slashing at Mr Lee. The 19-year-old confessed to aiming for Mr Lee’s face in order to make it difficult for him to retaliate or defend himself.

The victim apologised and ran into NTUC FairPrice supermarket to seek help, but the teen barged in and continued his attack.

Only after realising that the public’s attention was now focused on him, Teck fled the scene. He disposed of the knife by leaving it on the drain cover on the ground floor, washed his hands to rid himself of Mr Lee’s blood and flagged a taxi to Yishun.

He was arrested by the police at 11:00pm on the same day.

Pictures of the aftermath of the incident made the rounds on social media, showing trails of blood on the floor and shelves of the supermarket, as well as the bloodied victim being attended to.

You can check out one such Facebook post here, but do be warned that the attached pictures are not for the fainthearted.

Aftermath and Sentencing

Mr Lee suffered deep cuts and a deep abrasion along his index finger. He was given 40 days of hospitalisation leave and has since resumed his work as a restaurant waiter.

Doctors stated in Mr Lee’s medical report that the injuries would leave behind permanent disfigurement and scarring.

Teck was sent to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for psychiatric observation after his arrest but his psychiatrist deemed that his disorders had not influenced his decision to attack a person.

Teck’s “clinical presentation [was] most consistent with the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder” but it would not have “completely deprived him of the ability to control his actions,” added his psychiatrist.

In addition, though diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as a child, there was no causal link between it and his crimes.

TODAYonline also reported that the teen had previously served a reformative training stint for other offences.

For causing public alarm, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) See sought four years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane for Teck.

Teck could have been jailed for life or up to 15 years, and caned, for voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon.

Funnily enough, incidents involving weapons seem to happen a lot at Boon Lay Shopping Centre. In fact, teens gathered (and armed themselves with knives) for a settlement talk at the mall during Circuit Breaker last year.

Feature Image: Facebook (Rayni Suhaini)

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Sarah
Email: [email protected]