Woman, 53, gets 6 months' jail after stabbing her own abdomen during police stand-off while high on drugs

She was found to have consumed methamphetamine during the time of the offence.

Ruth Chai | January 19, 2023, 03:35 PM

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A woman, who held a knife outside St. Hilda's Secondary School on Sep. 19, 2022 and stabbed herself with it, was sentenced to six months' jail on Jan. 18, for possessing offensive weapons.

Juliana Abdul Kadir, 53, was confronted by the police during the stand-off and stabbed her abdomen several times before officers at the scene could subdue her.

She was found to have been high on methamphetamine during the time of the offence.

Stand-off

At about 6:30pm that day, the police were alerted to a woman "waving a knife" and walking along Tampines Street 82, outside St. Hilda's Secondary School.

Police officers were dispatched onto the scene.

While confronting her, they warned her to put the knife down, but she did not listen and continued to wave the knife around.

Juliana then used the knife to stab herself in the abdomen, and began bleeding profusely.

She continued to threaten to hurt herself if the police officers did not back off.

She held the knife to her neck and over her wrist several times.

The police attempted to use a taser to subdue her, but the taser round missed.

Juliana was eventually subdued by the police and arrested.

She was conveyed to the hospital in a stable condition.

It was revealed that the knife Juliana was carrying was meant for home use.

She was also found to have a penknife on her, which she used for drug consumption.

High on methamphetamine

Deputy Public Prosecutor Wu Yu Jie explained that Juliana was experiencing methamphetamine intoxication and "psychotic disorder with hallucinatory voices and paranoid delusions" at the time of the incident.

The Institute of Mental Health report stated that she had a opioid use disorder and stimulant use disorder relating to the use of meth or ice.

As she had not been carrying the weapons with the intention of protecting herself or attacking another, there was no causal link between her offending and her psychiatric conditions.

DPP Wu added that the psychotic disorder was “incidental and unrelated to the charge of possession of two offensive weapons”.

However, to deter others from consuming drugs, DPP Wu argued that Juliana must be made to bear responsibility for the acts that she had committed.

Pleaded guilty

In court, CNA reported that Juliana had no lawyer and said she wanted to go ahead with her guilty plea.

"I would like leniency, because at that time, I was in influence of drugs. I (was) hearing voices," she said.

However, the judge pointed out that the prosecutor had already addressed this point and that IMH found no causal link between her disorders and the offence.

The usual sentence for a first offender who pleads guilty to the offence of possessing offensive weapons is six months’ imprisonment and six strokes of the cane where the weapon is a knife.

However, since Juliana is a female, she cannot be caned.

Top image via Mothership reader