By Elena Chong
TWO years ago, Koh Kim Swee, now 23, hit his mother on the head
with a hammer and was jailed 15 months.
The unrepentant son hurt her again two months ago. He slashed
his 49-year-old mother's forehead with a 19cm-long knife along the
common corridor outside their flat at Jurong East Street 21 on
March 18 - over a trivial matter.
On Thursday, he was jailed 30 months and ordered to be caned six
strokes after he admitted to the charge earlier this week.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Prem Raj told Community Court Judge May
Mesenas that Koh confronted his mother who was then mopping the
floor of the living room and demanded why she had washed his cup.
When she denied this, he scolded her repeatedly and insisted that
she had washed his cup when he had ordered her not to.
Koh became increasingly agitated and aggressive and started to
shout at his mother. Madam Lee then decided to leave for her own
safety as she knew from past encounters that he would do something
to harm her. Just as she was stepping out of the corridor, Koh, who
was wielding a knife in his right hand, slashed her on the left
side of her head.
When he tried to slash her again, she managed to stop him by
holding on to the blade of the knife, injuring her left hand and
arm. Her screams alerted her neighbours. Madam Lee ran to the lift
lobby and sought the help of her neighbours on the first floor. She
was treated in hospital for cuts and her head and left arm.
