Singapore jails woman who threatened to stab her tenants to death while drunk

A woman in Singapore who threatened to kill the tenants of a room in her flat with a 33cm knife was sentenced to eight weeks’ jail in a district court on Monday.

Chinese national Li Kun, 39, had pleaded guilty in March to one charge of criminal intimidation of the tenants, a couple aged 30 and 26.

A second similar charge was also taken into consideration during the sentencing of Li, who had been working as a beautician.

At about 6.30am on October 20, 2021, Soo Zu Liang and Teo Yuen Yee, then aged 26 and 30 respectively, had been sleeping in their room when they were woken by Li who had returned home drunk, according to court documents prepared by Deputy Public Prosecutor Yohanes Ng.

The couple were tenants in Li’s flat where they have been renting one room for about four months under an agreement struck with Li’s husband.

They had heard loud banging sounds and Li shouting from the living room.

Teo had also heard Li mention that she was holding a knife and would wait for the two of them to leave their room to “kill them both”.

Although the door to their room was locked, Teo was worried for their safety so she told Soo to call the police.

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A review of the camera footage in the home revealed that after Li retrieved a 33cm long knife from the kitchen, she was then seen pacing around the house, Ng said.

On several occasions, she waved the knife while uttering threats in Mandarin which translated to: “I am holding the knife and wait for him to come out and stab him to death” and “I will stab whoever comes out”.

At the same time, Li could be seen aggressively knocking on the couple’s room door with the knife. She also scratched the door with the knife.

After Li was arrested, investigations revealed that she had a blood-alcohol level of 88mg/100ml. It was not stated in court documents when the blood test was taken.

After Li pleaded guilty in March, District Judge Marvin Bay called for a report to assess if Li was suitable for a mandatory treatment order – a community sentencing option offered to offenders suffering from mental conditions that contributed to their offence.

However, the report from the Institute of Mental Health, submitted on Monday, found no such contribution.

Nevertheless, Li’s lawyer Amarjit Singh from Amarjit Sidhu Law Corporation urged the court to consider a lighter sentence for his client, taking into account the report.

Singh noted that while the report did not find any causal link to the incident from any diagnosed condition, some weight ought to be given to Li’s behaviour during that period as she had been experiencing “major depressive episodes”.

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However, in delivering his sentence, Judge Bay said that the incident is “beyond dispute” given the existence of CCTV footage that was taken from the premises.

Deterrence remained the “predominant consideration” when deciding the appropriate sentence, the judge added.

For threatening criminal intimidation to cause death or grievous hurt, Li could have been jailed for up to 10 years or fined, or both.