19-year-old gets 3.5 years’ jail, caning for slashing stranger at Boon Lay Shopping Centre

• James Teck Jing You wanted the victim to buy him cigarettes 
• When the stranger refused, he got angry and attacked him with a knife
• Teck pursued the victim who fled into an NTUC FairPrice supermarket 
• He was jailed three-and-a-half years and given eight strokes of the cane 

SINGAPORE — Upset that a stranger refused to buy him cigarettes, James Teck Jing You repeatedly slashed him with a knife.

When the victim ran into an NTUC FairPrice supermarket at Boon Lay Shopping Centre, Teck gave chase and stabbed him again before fleeing.

The attack in broad daylight left the victim with permanent disfigurement and scarring.

For his actions, Teck, who was 18 then, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ jail and eight strokes of the cane on Tuesday (April 27). The sentence was backdated to Oct 9 last year, soon after he was arrested.

The Singaporean, now 19, pleaded guilty in court to one charge each of causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon and possessing a knife with a 10cm-long blade.

On Oct 7 last year, around noon, he had left his home for Boon Lay Shopping Centre, the court heard.

He hid the knife under his waistband, wedging it between his shorts and underwear, and tucked his shirt out. He bought it several months before that, with the intention of taking it with him whenever he left home for self-defence.

At the shopping mall, he noticed Mr Lee Jing Chwen, 23, walking in the opposite direction on a flight of stairs.

Teck then turned around and followed the stranger up the stairs, approaching him in the queue to enter the FairPrice store on the mall’s second floor.

When Teck asked Mr Lee for his age and if he could buy cigarettes for him, Mr Lee rejected this repeatedly. The minimum legal age for the purchase of tobacco products was then 20 (it has since been raised to 21).

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Janice See said that this angered the younger man who felt that Mr Lee was being rude and disrespectful.

AIMED FOR VICTIM’S FACE

When Mr Lee reached the front of the queue and was at the temperature-screening station, he asked a crew member stationed there if she could tell Teck to go away and stop following him.

Soon afterwards, Teck lunged at him with the knife, shouting: “You don’t want to buy, right?”

He then grabbed Mr Lee’s shoulder and began slashing him several times.

Teck later confessed to aiming for the victim’s face, as it would be difficult for him to retaliate or defend himself.

Mr Lee tried ducking to escape the attacks and started shouting that he was sorry, but Teck pulled him down and swung the knife at him again. 

More blood spurted from Mr Lee’s face and a few strands of the victim’s hair were cut off.

Mr Lee ran into the supermarket, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. 

Teck went after him and swung his knife, this time towards the back of the victim’s head. 

Mr Lee continued running while Teck pursued him, with the assailant fleeing the supermarket after realising his actions had attracted the public’s attention.

Running to the ground floor, Teck disposed of the knife by placing it on top of a drain cover, washed off Mr Lee’s blood from his hands, and flagged a taxi to Yishun. 

Police officers arrested him at 11pm and recovered the weapon.

Mr Lee was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in Jurong East, having suffered multiple injuries, such as deep cuts and a deep abrasion along his index finger.

In a medical report, doctors said that the injuries would cause him permanent incapacity in terms of disfigurement and scarring.

He was given 40 days of hospitalisation leave and has since resumed work as a restaurant waiter.

CAUSED PUBLIC ALARM

DPP See sought four years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane, arguing that Teck’s actions had caused public alarm and disquiet. 

At least four emergency calls were made to the police and Singapore Civil Defence Force.

Teck previously served a reformative training stint — a regimented rehabilitation programme for offenders under 21 who commit relatively serious crimes — for other offences. 

After being arrested for attacking Mr Lee, he was sent to the Institute of Mental Health. 

The forensic psychiatrist who examined him said that his “clinical presentation is most consistent with the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder” and, as a child, he was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which people have unwanted, recurring thoughts and behaviours.

Those with antisocial personality disorder consistently show no regard for right and wrong, and ignore the rights and feelings of other people. 

Nevertheless, the psychiatrist said that there was no causal link between Teck’s obsessive-compulsive disorder and his crimes. The psychiatrist was also of the view that Teck’s antisocial personality disorder “would not have completely deprived him of the ability to control his actions”.

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

For carrying an offensive weapon in a public place, he could have been jailed for up to three years and given at least six strokes of the cane.