SINGAPORE, Jan 5 — Upset that her 15-year-old daughter had been going out frequently, a 40-year-old woman who had been drinking stabbed the teenager in the thigh in a bid to stop her from leaving the house.
Then when the girl fled to her older sister’s room seeking safety, the mother scolded her for failing to clean up the blood that dripped on the floor from her stab wound.
The woman was sentenced on Wednesday (Jan 4) to 14 months’ jail. She had pleaded guilty on an earlier date to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon.
The pair cannot be named due to a court order to protect the victim’s identity.
Sometime on the evening of June 19 last year, the woman was drinking alcohol at home. The victim’s older sister, baby brother and the family’s domestic worker were also in the house.
After midnight, the victim was preparing to go to bed when her mother entered the room and started berating her.
The woman also called her older daughter to the room and asked if she should kill the victim.
Out of fear that her mother would become angry at her as well, the older daughter did not react and was hesitant to intervene.
The woman then went to the kitchen and took a knife before returning to the room.
At about 1.35am, the woman stabbed her younger daughter in the right thigh, causing her to bleed.
In an attempt to stop the bleeding, the victim tied a shirt around her thigh.
Upon seeing that blood had gotten onto the floor, the woman told her to clean it up and then went to the kitchen.
Afraid of what else her mother might do to her, the victim hobbled to her older sister’s room for safety despite still bleeding from the injury.
Then, when the woman returned to the victim’s room and saw that the blood was still there, she started shouting at her.
Frightened, the victim quickly returned to her room and started cleaning it up with the help of her sister.
The woman continued shouting at her and at one point, used a metal ladle to hit the victim, using so much force that the scoop of the ladle was bent out of shape.
She then bent the ladle back into shape and resumed hitting the victim with the ladle, ignoring the victim’s cries for her to stop and that she was in pain.
Instead, she started mocking the victim’s pain and suffering, court documents stated.
About 10 minutes later, police officers arrived at the residence because someone had complained about the noise.
The woman denied doing anything and the police left.
After that, she then continued shouting at the victim and used a small electric fan, as well as floorball sticks to hit her.
When she stopped her attacks, she told her older daughter to help the victim. However, the victim continued bleeding despite her sister’s attempt to stop it.
Two hours later at about 3.20am, the woman called the police for assistance and admitted to her actions.
Her daughter was taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Court documents showed that she suffered from deep cuts on her thigh and forearms, as well as multiple bruises.
The woman later admitted to stabbing the victim in the thigh with a kitchen knife.
She was upset with the victim for going out frequently and decided to stab her in the leg to prevent her from doing so, court documents stated.
Before delivering the sentence, District Judge Eugene Teo told the woman that she needed to heal her relationship with her daughter.
He acknowledged that she had taken responsibility for her actions and, along with other factors such as the fact that she was a first-time offender, ordered a sentence of 14 months’ jail.
“Please use this period as a period for healing so that you come out a better person,” he said.
For voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon, the woman could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined, caned or given a combination of these punishments. — TODAY
