Man who slit his mum’s throat sentenced to life imprisonment

SINGAPORE — A 34-year-old man who killed his mother by stabbing her in the neck and slitting her throat with three different knives three years ago was today (Sept 15) sentenced to life imprisonment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Delivering the sentence, judicial commissioner Hoo Sheau Peng said Sujay Solomon Sutherson had committed an offence that was “grave enough to require a long sentence”. Given the nature of the offence and his history of paranoid schizophrenia, Sujay was a “person of unstable character, likely to commit such offences in the future”, she said.

In the prosecution’s submissions on sentencing, deputy public prosecutor Kumaresan Gohulabalan, who asked for life imprisonment, said Sujay’s actions “reveal a callous disregard for human life”.

He also noted that Sujay has a “poor insight into his condition” and his intelligence may disguise his symptoms.

“The best treatment for the accused would be for him to be in a facility where his consumption of antipsychotic medication can be supervised, observed and enforced where necessary,” he added.

Sujay, who represented himself, today challenged the prosecution’s submissions, noting that precedent cases cited by the prosecution for sentencing had a “level of premeditation that was not present” in his case.

Ms Hoo however pointed out that his arguments were “more relevant to the decision of conviction rather than sentence”.

In a five-day trial in July, the court heard that Sujay had stabbed Madam Mallika Jesudasan, 56, in the neck at their Bukit Batok East flat with two knives and left them embedded in her neck. He then slit her throat using the third knife. His uncle, Mr Daniel Jesudason, found the body when he checked under her bed.

Mr Daniel, who was present at today’s hearing, said Sujay was a thoughtful person of “above average” intelligence who graduated with an arts degree from the National University of Singapore.

Mr Daniel, the managing director of mental health centre Promises, told reporters that the sentence was “quite expected”. A better option would have been to rehabilitate Sujay instead of incarceration, but such options might be limited currently, he added.