Community sentence for mum who slashed daughter’s arm with chopper while trying to hurt family dog

SINGAPORE — A 49-year-old former beer hostess wanted to chop up her family's dog, but ended up hurting her 15-year-old daughter, who was trying to shield the dog.

She ended up slashing her daughter’s arm with a chopper so badly that the girl’s muscle and fat were exposed in a 3cm by 5cm cut. 

The victim also sustained a 2cm-long laceration on her head in the incident, which occurred on Oct 8 last year in their home in Bukit Batok, as her mother had hit her on the top of her head about 10 times.

Both the mother and daughter cannot be named due to a gag order. 

For the acts of voluntarily causing hurt, the mother was on Friday (Nov 15) handed a community sentence comprising a short detention order of 14 days and a year-long day reporting order. In addition, she will have to complete 140 hours of community service by this time next year.

Upon her release from the short detention order, she will be placed on electronic monitoring for six months and required to remain indoors from 10pm to 6am.

She will also have to undergo counselling at Fei Yue Family Service Centre and continue with treatment at the National Addictions Management Service at the Institute of Mental Health for her alcohol issues.

‘MUM HAS GONE CRAZY AGAIN’

Court documents stated that the incident took place at about 4.30am.

The daughter was sleeping in her room when she was suddenly woken up by her mother, who hugged her and said: “Let me hug you for one last time.”

She noticed that her mother was reeking of alcohol, and pushed her away as she wanted to sleep, as she had to wake up for school later. She also asked her mother to leave the room.

The mother did leave, but soon returned with a chopper that had a blade measuring 18cm by 8cm. She was bleeding profusely, with a cut on the inner side of her left forearm.

“How could you do this to me? I am your mother,” the injured mother said to her daughter.

Worried, the daughter then called her grandfather — the father of the accused — who lived a five-minute walk away from them, and told him: “Mum has gone crazy again. She cut herself.” He then said he would make his way over.

But after making the call, her mother suddenly came towards her and wanted to strangle the dog resting beside her on the bed. The daughter quickly moved the dog out of her mother’s reach and used her body to shield the pet from being attacked.

The mother did not relent and tried to use the chopper to cut the dog, reaching for it under the daughter’s left arm. She ended up cutting the daughter’s forearm instead. 

This deep wound was contaminated with dog hair as the girl continued to protect her dog, which then panicked and bit her index finger, fracturing it.

DURING ATTACK, MOTHER SAYS SHE WILL GO TO JAIL

The teenager then crouched on top of her dog, and her mother used the chopper to hit the top of her head several times.

As she hit her daughter, the mother remarked that she will go to jail for the attack. She then stopped and left the room, the court heard.

The girl’s grandfather arrived at the unit shortly after and asked what had happened. The mother did not reply. 

The grandfather then told the girl to call the ambulance and the police. The mother shouted at her daughter several times, telling her not to, but the grandfather insisted.

The accused then dashed out of the unit. 

He tried to pursue her, but could not find her. 

While he was out, the accused quickly returned to their unit and locked the door.

The police later found her in her room, sent her to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and placed her under arrest.

VICTIM BACK TO LIVING WITH MOTHER

Mr Josephus Tan of Invictus Law Corporation represented the accused in court on Friday. 

In his mitigation plea, Mr Tan said that the accused’s husband had “abandoned the family”, and that she was emotionally unstable.

In a letter to the judge, the daughter said that her father had left the family when she was 14 years old.

The teenager wrote: “My love for my mother is strong. I want to spend more time with her, seeing her every day and create more good memories since my father had left us alone… I have already forgiven her, your honour.”

Mr Tan said that the daughter was taken away by the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s Child Protective Service (CPS) following the incident, and returned to her mother’s custody on May 6 this year. 

Rehabilitation is already underway, Mr Tan added, pointing out that the return of the custody was on the condition that she drinks responsibly, if at all, and that the accused’s father was to live with the mother-and-daughter pair for added supervision. 

She was also subject to random house visits by the CPS, and made to undergo monthly counselling, he said.

“(This) means that the assigned case officer has since assessed the family home to be safe, that the risks within the home have been adequately addressed and that the paramount safety of (the daughter) is not compromised,” he said, stating that there is now a low risk of the mother reoffending.

In fact, the mother is already into her next phase of rehabilitation, Mr Tan said, pointing out that his client is now undergoing skills training to become qualified to work as a beautician, manicurist, pedicurist or masseuse.

This was to stave her away from her previous employment as a beer hostess at a coffee shop, which immersed her in alcohol use and sales.

The accused could have been jailed for up to two years, or fined up to S$5,000, or both, for voluntarily causing hurt to her daughter.