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A 14-year-old boy stabbed his father, 49,  in the neck with a fruit knife on the morning of Dec. 11, 2020.

The boy, now 15, admitted to killing his father and was sentenced to five years in detention on Jan. 24, 2022.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Lim Shin Hui noted that there are no precedents where the courts have sentenced an offender to be detained under Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA) for committing homicide.

Under this same act, the boy, his deceased father, younger brother and mother cannot be named.

Boy had difficult relationship with father

According to court documents seen by Mothership, the boy had a "difficult relationship" with his deceased father, whom he thought was highly controlling and strict.

His father limited his access to his handphone and computer games, monitored him closely, and set regular household tasks and assignments such as laundry duties and homework and assessment books.

The father would swear at and hit him when he failed to comply with his instructions, during which court documents noted that the boy did not suffer any physical injuries.

At the same time, the boy's relationship with his mother and younger brother was described as "largely cordial".

He started harbouring thoughts of killing his father sometime in June 2020, when his father barred him from playing computer games for a month.

Angry that father blamed him for missing detergent scoop

However, the boy did not act on or tell anyone about these thoughts before Dec. 11, 2020.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, the boy, his younger brother and his father were at home at their condominium at Loyang. His mother had left the house for work.

At around 9:50am, the boy's father was doing the laundry but could not find the detergent scoop. He became agitated and asked the boy if he hid the detergent scoop.

The boy denied doing so, and became angry at his father for questioning him, but continued to help with the laundry and used his hands to scoop the detergent.

Harboured thoughts to kill his father

The boy remained angry, even after both parties returned to their respective rooms, and started harbouring thoughts of killing his father to "free" himself.

He went into the kitchen and took a knife, which was too big for his pockets and hard to conceal.

This knife was replaced with a shorter fruit knife with a blade measuring approximately 9.5cm, which the boy carried in his pants pocket and went back to his room.

Realising that it would be easier to stab his father while he was crouching, the boy returned to the kitchen after he heard his father asking his younger brother to do the laundry.

This was where he saw and heard his younger brother and father, who was telling his youngest son that his brother had thrown the detergent scoop away.

The boy was aggrieved at being falsely accused of something he had not done.

After noticing the boy in the kitchen, his father confronted him again about the missing detergent scoop.

The boy denied doing so and returned to his room.

The act

The boy returned to the kitchen at about 10:10am, where he saw his father crouching beside his younger brother with their backs facing him at the laundry area.

The boy withdrew the fruit knife from his pants pocket and stabbed his father once on the left side of his neck with the intention to cause death to his father, according to court documents seen by Mothership. This caused the older man to scream.

The boy placed the fruit knife in the kitchen sink before escaping to his room and locking the door, and his father went to the living room and sat on a chair while his younger brother called their mother and for an ambulance.

Shortly after, the boy emerged from his room and apologised profusely to his father and younger brother. He also assisted his younger brother by applying pressure to his father's neck wound with a towel to stop the bleeding.

Court documents noted that the boy's father soon became unconscious and collapsed on the floor.

The police and paramedics arrived at the flat at about 10:21am, where their attempts to resuscitate the boy's father were unsuccessful.

The boy's father was conveyed to Changi General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:58am on Dec. 11, 2020.

At about 12:10pm on the same day, the boy was arrested after admitting he had stabbed his father to the police.

Diagnosed with autism and obsessive-compulsive traits

Following his arrest, the boy was assessed at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) by Ong Say How, who found that the boy's Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive traits did not have a causal or contributory link to the offence.

The boy was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, which is now known as ASD, when he was one year and eight months old.

He enrolled into Pathlight School initially but transferred into a mainstream primary school after he was deemed to be sufficiently high functioning.

While he was not observed to have any conduct or disciplinary problems in school, there were concerns about the amount of time that he spent on computer games.

As a result, the boy was referred to the National Addictions Management Service at IMH where he was diagnosed with Internet Gaming Disorder in 2018 at the age of 12.

He attended various counselling and therapy programmes to assist in the management of his ASD and Internet Gaming Disorder.

Ong found the boy to possess sufficient maturity to understand and judge the nature and consequences when he committed the act and added that the boy's risk of violent reoffending is low.

Family decimated

The boy, who was charged with murder initially, pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the High Court on Jan. 24, according to the Straits Times.

The prosecution sought a detention term of five to seven years, due to the seriousness of the offence and because the boy understood the nature and consequences of his action at the time of the offence.

The defence counsel, Shashidran Nathan, requested a detention sentence of three to five years.

According to ST, Shashidran said the incident was an "extremely tragic case" that "decimated the family" as the boy's younger brother stopped speaking temporarily and his mother was diagnosed with cancer shortly after.

The incident was "one-off", said Shashidran, who described the boy as "young and smart" and hopes he can contribute to society in the future.

Shashidran said the boy has adjusted and responded well to the Boy's Home, where he will turn 16 come February and sit for O-levels this year.

DPP Lim told the court that the boy will have access to the necessary academic support when he is transferred to prison if he wishes to take further his education, according to CNA.

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Top image by Nigel Chua