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16YO S’pore Teen Pleads Guilty for Repeatedly Threatening to Kill His Mum

2023-06-20 , 11:48 am

Last Updated on 2023-06-22 , 8:49 am

Most of us had our parents wake us up in the morning back in school. Sometimes, they forget to, and that’s okay.

However, one teen doesn’t think it’s okay when his mother doesn’t wake him up in the morning. In response, he attacked and threatened to kill his mother.

16-Year-Old Teen Pleads Guilty to Repeatedly Threatening to Kill Mother

On Monday (19 June), a 16-year-old Singapore teen pleaded guilty to three charges of causing hurt and one charge of criminal intimidation.

As it turns out, from October to November last year, he had on multiple occasions assaulted his mother and threatened to kill her.

However, the teen’s mother did not lodge police reports against her son until the “last straw” incident when the 16-year-old held a chopper to her chest and threatened to kill her.

We don’t think this is a simple case of “Boy ah, you’re spending too much time on your phone”.

The 16-year-old will return to court on 2 August for sentencing. Until then, the 16-year-old will stay with his other family members—his father and older brother.

For causing hurt, he could face up to a five-year jail term or fined up to S$10,000, or both. The maximum punishment for criminal intimidation is ten years’ jail, a fine, or both.

Teen Assaulted Mother After She Failed to Wake Him Up on Time

There are a few notable incidents which landed the mother-son pair in the state they’re currently in.

For starters, the 16-year-old began frequently assaulting his mother in fits of rage when he was 12 or 13 years old. Once in a while, he would ask his mother to “go and kill herself”.

His mother kept mum about his assaults for nearly four years before finally reporting him to the police.

Sometimes, “patience is a virtue” shouldn’t be strictly followed.

The teen’s assaults on his mother can be contextualised with multiple reasons—he had anger management issues and spent most of his time with his mother as he wasn’t close with his father and older brother.

One particularly notable incident happened on 17 October last year, when the teen stayed up until 5 am studying for his GCE O-Level examinations.

After burning the midnight oil, he toh-ed and woke up five hours later at approximately 10 am. Not too shabby of a time to wake up unless you have a test that day.

And the 16-year-old did. He had an English test that day.

Vexed that his mother had failed to wake him up earlier for his test, he flew into a rage and punched his mother several times on her back.

Yes, you read that right. He assaulted his mother for failing to wake him up on time.

Following this 17 October incident, his mother arranged for the 16-year-old to meet the school’s counsellor on 4 November.

Presumably, as a result of the 17 October incident, she set alarms to ring every 15 minutes starting from 10:30 am to ensure the 16-year-old would wake up on time.

However, this would prove to be a bad decision. When the alarms started going off, the 16-year-old got angry and smashed the alarm clock.

Most of us just hit snooze, but okay.

As a result, the teen’s mother decided to leave him be and attend the counselling session herself, under the counsellor’s advice.

Bad decision number two.

When she returned home from the counselling session, the teen asked why she didn’t wake him. He then lost his temper and attacked his mother again.

So what does he want? For his mother to wake him up or to let him sleep through all alarms?

The teen’s mother wound up with a rib fracture and bleeding in her inner lip.

Teen Threatened to Kill Mother When Discussing His Post-O-Levels Plans

That’s not the end of it. The 16-year-old’s rage knew no bounds.

On 24 November, the 16-year-old and his mother discussed the teen’s post-O-Levels plans. Specifically, what school he should attend after completing his O Levels.

When his mother could not answer his questions, he lost his temper and hit his mother with a hard-cover report book. He also punched his mother’s head and left cheek.

She ran to her bedroom, locked the door and called the police, but the teen later found her bedroom key and managed to unlock her bedroom door.

He asked her why it was “so difficult” for her to understand him, to which his mother did not respond. Growing angrier by the minute, the 16-year-old eventually swiped a chopper with a 16.5 cm blade from the kitchen, brought it close to her chest area and threatened to kill her.

Tensions were high, but fortunately, the teen’s older brother finally intervened and urged the teen to put the chopper down. The police arrived not long after.

Teen Struggles with Anxiety and Body Image Issues

While some may dismiss the 16-year-old as a “strawberry”, the problem runs deeper.

The teen initially attended counselling sessions at the Fei Yue Family Service Centre after being referred there by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).

Afterwards, he was referred to the Institute of Mental Health, where it was revealed that the teen struggled with a slate of issues, including anxiety, stress and body image problems.

These problems aren’t the type of Pokémon you want to collect.

Although the counselling sessions effectively improved his condition, he eventually pulled the plug on these sessions in December 2021.

We wonder if the assaults would have happened had he continued attending the sessions.

Judge Seeking Report on Teen’s Suitability for Probation

Before the 16-year-old’s sentencing rolls around on 2 August, a report on his suitability for probation will be prepared.

In court, the prosecution floated two possible punishments—either probation or reformative training.

However, given that the 16-year-old has since stopped all assaults on his mother and will also be taking his A Levels soon, the harsher punishment of reformative training was dismissed. Only a report on his suitability for probation will be prepared.

If the 16-year-old is found suitable for probation, he won’t be thrown to jiak kali png in jail.

Instead, he can continue his day-to-day activities under an MSF probation officer’s supervision for six months and three years.