Woman pleads guilty to hurling religiously charged insults at neighbour

SINGAPORE — Just two months before completing a mandatory treatment order for placing raw pork outside her Malay-Muslim neighbour’s home, Lee Dji Lin began shouting insulting phrases in Malay at her.

These included “anak babi”, a Malay phrase that means “child of a pig”. Lee had been upset by the noise caused by Madam Marliah Jonet’s daughter vacuuming their flat, which was directly above Lee’s.

Lee, a 65-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty in a district court on Wednesday (Nov 6) to two charges of uttering words with the deliberate intention to wound Mdm Marliah’s religious feelings, an offence which falls under Section 298 of the Penal Code.

Another such charge will be taken into consideration for sentencing on Dec 12.

District Judge Brenda Tan called for a report to assess whether Lee is suitable for another mandatory treatment order — a community sentencing option offered to offenders suffering from mental conditions that contributed to the offence.

Instead of serving jail time, such offenders have to undergo psychiatric treatment for up to three years. They will not have a criminal record if they complete the order.

In June 2017, Lee was sentenced to a two-year order for similar offences against Mdm Marliah. Matters related to the breach of that order will be heard after Lee is sentenced.

Besides placing pork outside Mdm Marliah’s home, Lee had swung a bamboo pole with a pair of female undergarments attached to its end towards the other woman’s kitchen window.

WHAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR

The court heard on Wednesday that Lee struck again on April 24 this year, when Mdm Marliah’s daughter was vacuuming their ninth-floor flat.

Mdm Marliah — now aged 63 — then called the police, saying that her neighbour living on the eighth floor had been cursing at her and that they had been in a dispute before.

After that, Lee continued to shout insulting phrases on two separate days in June.

On June 11 at about 11am, while Mdm Marliah was cleaning her flat, Lee was at home and was shouting derogatory and racist remarks in Malay at her.

Mdm Marliah called the police once more.

Court documents showed that six days later, Lee hurled more insults at Mdm Marliah in Malay, again using references to pigs.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Vincent Ong told the court that as Lee had targeted the same victim before in 2017, there was a need “to protect the social fabric”.

But he also recognised that an Institute of Mental Health report had found some contributory link of the crime to Lee’s delusional disorder, so he did not voice any objection to the calling for a mandatory treatment order report.

Lee’s lawyer Chung Ting Fai noted that she had been allocated another rental flat and will soon move out of her current rental flat. "The removal of the trigger point will help," Mr Chung added.