80-year-old man slashed sister at another sister's wake for refusing him allowance

Chan Tuck Sing, an 80-year-old jobless man, was sentenced to five years' jail yesterday (Oct 8) for trying to kill his sister at the funeral wake of another sister. 

He pleaded guilty in February to a charge of attempted culpable homicide for the attack on April 8, 2016.

In sentencing him on Monday, Justice Chua Lee Ming took into account the circumstances leading to the slashing, Chan's old age and that his risk of committing such an offence again was assessed to be low.

According to The Straits Times, the sentence was backdated to April 9, 2016, when Chan was remanded into custody after giving himself up to the police.

Chan had lived alone and was unemployed for 15 years.

He used to get an allowance from his mother before she died in 2006.

His younger sister, Madam Chan Sow Boey, then gave him $510 a month, from a sum of money their mother had left her, the court heard.

On April 6, 2016, Sow Boey was found dead at her home.

Chan became worried about his livelihood, as his source of income had been cut off.

Chan approached his sister Sow Lin, 69, on the first day of Sow Boey's wake at the void deck of a block in Jurong West Street 41.

He asked if she would carry on giving him a monthly allowance, but she said no.

Chan spent the night thinking about the rejection and decided to kill Sow Lin.

The next morning, he wrapped a chopper in a T-shirt and put the bundle in his bag.

At the wake, he saw Sow Lin at a table with her 34-year-old son and an elderly woman who was there to pay her respects.

To get Sow Lin's son out of the way, Chan gave her son money to buy him coffee.

When her son left, he went up and started slashing Sow Lin with the chopper.

She grabbed a plastic chair to fend him off but he hacked at it, pulled it away from her and continued slashing her as she tried to move away.

It was only when a passer-by shouted that he dropped the chopper and fled.

Chan then washed the blood off himself, took three buses to Clementi police station and told three officers what he had done.

He was later assessed by psychiatrists to be suffering from an adjustment disorder which impaired his judgment and impulse control.

Read the full story at The Straits Times.