Man repeatedly struck own father with walking stick, causing multiple injuries

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Aug 13, 2021

A man inflicted multiple injuries on his own father after he used the older man's walking stick to repeatedly strike him.

The victim suffered injuries that included a stab wound on the middle finger of his left hand and cuts on his right shoulder.

His son, Liew Jun Xian, 24, pleaded guilty on Friday (Aug 13) to an unrelated charge of failing to turn up at the Lloyd Leas Community Supervision Centre, a rehabilitation centre near Upper Changi Road North, in March last year.

Two other charges, including one count of assaulting his father, will be considered during sentencing.

The court heard that Liew had been ordered to undergo reformative training on July 20, 2016. Court documents do not disclose details about his earlier conviction.

Offenders in reformative training are detained in a centre and made to follow a strict regimen that includes foot drills and counselling.

On Feb 19 last year, he was released from a reformative training centre and placed on a "release on supervision" scheme.

As part of this move, he had to comply with certain conditions such as sticking to a curfew and reporting to his supervision officer based on a schedule.

He also had to live with his father and wear a radio frequency identification electronic monitoring tag.

Liew was aware that he should not tamper with the device.

In spite of this, he breached the conditions and repeatedly violated his curfew. Details about the curfew were not disclosed in court documents.

On March 24 last year, a notice was issued to his father's flat, asking Liew to report to the Lloyd Leas Community Supervision Centre the next day.

Liew failed to turn up. Instead, he moved out of his father's home and sought shelter at his friends' homes. He also ignored his supervision officer's calls.

The court heard that he cut off his electronic monitoring tag to avoid being traced.

Liew finally turned himself in at Bedok North Neighbourhood Police Centre on Aug 31 last year.

Instead of keeping himself out of trouble, he hit his father with a walking stick about four months later. It was not disclosed why he assaulted the older man.

Liew will be sentenced on Sept 1.