James Teck Jing You, a 19-year-old Singaporean, slashed a 23-year-old man at Boon Lay Shopping Centre in October 2020 when the man refused to buy cigarettes for him.

Teck was arrested on the same day. He was 18 when he committed the offences.

The Straits Times reported that on Apr. 27, 2021, Teck was sentenced to jail for three-and-a-half years with eight strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to two charges.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Teck was charged with one count of causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon and one count of possessing a knife with a 10cm-long blade.

The case

Brought a knife with him when he went out

Court documents stated that Teck had gone to Boon Lay Shopping Centre around noon on Oct. 7, 2020.

He had tucked a black-handled knife with an approximately 10cm-long blade in his bermudas, and had his shirt tucked out so that the knife would not be visible.

Teck had purchased the knife in February 2020 with the intention of bringing it out with him whenever he left home so that he could use it as a "means of self-defence", according to court documents.

Asked victim to buy cigarettes for him

While at the shopping centre, Teck noticed the victim walking towards an NTUC supermarket.

He followed and approached the victim while the victim was standing in the queue to enter NTUC.

Teck subsequently asked the victim to purchase cigarettes for him. The victim rejected his request.

However, Teck persisted and the victim repeatedly refused.

This angered Teck as he felt that the victim was "being rude and disrespectful towards him", court documents stated.

Attacked victim with knife

The victim then reached the front of the queue and used his mobile phone to scan the QR code to enter the NTUC.

That was when Teck removed the knife from his bermudas and lunged towards the victim while shouting: "You don’t want to buy, right?"

Teck swung the knife repeatedly at the victim's face area.

He admitted to aiming for the victim's face as it would be difficult for the victim to retaliate and/ or defend himself.

The victim was slashed several times and blood was spurting from his face. He also tried ducking to escape the attacks and started shouting that he was sorry.

However, Teck pulled the victim's upper body downwards and swung the knife to the victim's face again.

More blood spurted from the victim's face, and a few strands of the victim's hair were also cut off.

Escaped after he attracted attention of the public

The victim subsequently managed to run into the NTUC, leaving a trail of blood.

Teck gave chase and caught up with the victim, who was limping by this time.

Teck then swung the knife towards the back of the victim's head.

The victim continued running deeper into the NTUC and Teck pursued him.

However, at this juncture, Teck realised that his actions had attracted the attention of the public and immediately ran out of NTUC with the knife in hand to escape.

Arrested on the same day

Teck ran down the staircase to the ground floor and placed the knife on top of a drain cover.

He then hurriedly washed the victim's blood off his hands and flagged a taxi to Yishun.

Meanwhile, the victim was tended to by members of the public.

At around 12:40pm that day, the police received a call relating to the incident.

Subsequently, three more calls were made to the police and SCDF.

At 11pm that same day, Teck was arrested and the knife was eventually recovered by the police.

Victim suffered multiple injuries

After Teck fled the scene, the victim was conveyed to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

He suffered multiple injuries to his face and head. He also had deep cuts and a deep abrasion along his index finger.

In a medical report, doctors said that the injuries would cause him "permanent incapacity in terms of disfigurement and scarring".

The victim was issued a 40-day hospitalisation leave.

Has OCD but is not linked to his offences

After his arrest, Teck was remanded in the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for nearly a month for psychiatric assessment.

According to IMH reports, Teck was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) as a child.

However, there was no causal link between Teck's OCD and his offences.

IMH reports also stated that Teck's current clinical presentation is most consistent with the diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD).

In view of the his ASPD diagnosis, the reports stated that he would be more likely to act impulsively or retaliate on perceived provocation than someone without ASPD.

However, a doctor stated in the reports that Teck's ASPD "would not have completely deprived him of the ability to control his actions".

Parents filed a complaint against him when he was 13

Court documents further revealed that Teck's parents had filed a "beyond parental control" complaint against him when he was 13 years old as they were unable to discipline him.

He was then sent to Boys' Town.

While he was out on leave during his stay there, Teck committed robbery with hurt and was sentenced to reformative training in 2018.

Eight months after the reformative training centre, he committed the knife attack at the NTUC supermarket.

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Top image screenshots taken from Facebook.