Woman, 53, who stabbed herself outside St Hilda's Secondary School to plead guilty to possessing weapons

SINGAPORE — A 53-year-old woman who stabbed herself in the stomach outside St Hilda’s Secondary School told the court on Wednesday (Dec 7) that she intends to plead guilty to possessing offensive weapons in public.

Juliana Abdul Kadir, a Singaporean, is accused of having a 21cm-long knife and a 13cm-long penknife blade in public at the time of the incident on Sept 19.

Juliana, who was not represented by a lawyer, faces a single charge of possessing offensive weapons in a public place under the Corrosive and Explosive Substances and Offensive Weapons Act.

She is scheduled to return to court on Jan 18 next year.

TODAY previously reported that a video clip of the incident, which circulated on social media, showed a woman holding and waving a knife outside the secondary school along Tampines Street 82.

When police officers responded to a call at 6.30pm, she allegedly brandished a knife at the officers before using it to stab herself in the abdomen.

The police said in a subsequent news release that despite verbal commands for her to drop the knife, the woman purportedly disregarded the officers’ instructions.

She allegedly “placed the knife on her neck and threatened to harm herself further”.

An officer then used a taser on the woman, the police said. She was eventually subdued by the police and arrested at the scene.

The police said in their statement that Juliana would be investigated by the Central Narcotics Bureau for suspected drug-related offences, but she was not handed any drug-related charges when she first appeared in court on Sept 21.

The offence of possessing offensive weapons carries a sentence of up to three years' jail and at least six strokes of the cane.

Under Singapore law, however, women or anyone above the age of 50 cannot be caned.