SINGAPORE – The Chief Justice has set aside a 12-year corrective training sentence given to a man convicted of housebreaking and sent the case back to the District Judge to resolve disputed points, after two psychiatrists had given conflicting reports.

Prosecutors had submitted a psychiatric report that concluded that Ng Chun Hian, 35, was not suffering from a mental illness when he committed the housebreaking offences in October 2012. Ng, who had past antecedents related to theft offences, committed three housebreaking offences over four days, with the first occurring less than two weeks after his release from prison.

However, in another psychiatric report presented by defence lawyers, Ng was deemed to be suffering from kleptomania — an addiction to stealing regardless of personal use or monetary gain.

The District Judge, who noted Ng’s long history of property-related offences, sentenced him to 12 years’ corrective training and six strokes of the cane, which he appealed against.

In his judgment released yesterday, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon noted the two psychiatric reports held differing opinions, but neither of the doctors was cross-examined during the hearing at the District Court.

He said: “The key question for me was whether the appellant’s alleged psychiatric condition of kleptomania was a relevant sentencing consideration. In my judgment, it was plainly relevant to determining what the appropriate sentence should be, as well as whether it should be coupled with a suitable treatment plan.”

The Chief Justice thus ordered a newton hearing, which is convened when a fact is contested and is material to sentencing, to determine if Ng is a kleptomaniac and the type of incarceration he should receive. Ng Jing Yng