Hawker jailed for knife threat

After arguing with his girlfriend for nearly three hours, Lee Boon Seng charged at her with a kitchen knife, pushed her against a wall and placed the weapon on her neck.

In the incident on Sept 14 last year. the 54-year-old hawker also tried to strangle Ms Tham Feng Jian, 55, with his hands, punched her in the head, and smashed her head against the wall.

Yesterday, Lee, who was drunk at the time, was given four weeks' jail after pleading guilty to intimidating Ms Tham with a knife. Another charge, of hurting her, was taken into consideration.

The court earlier heard that the incident happened at an HDB flat in Clementi Avenue 3, where Lee lived with Ms Tham and a man who works at the hawker stall that the couple operate together.

Lee took the knife from the kitchen around 11.50pm that day, almost three hours after they began arguing at 9pm over household matters.

Alarmed at his actions and at having the knife on her neck, Ms Tham pushed Lee's hand away, which caused him to drop the weapon onto the floor.

They continued to argue throughout the incident. Their employee, who was home and saw what had happened, called the police about an hour later.

A pre-sentencing report found that Lee was not suitable for a mandatory treatment order, which entails psychiatric treatment in lieu of jail time.

Capped at two years, it is meant for offenders who suffer from psychiatric conditions.

Citing the report yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Gabriel Choong said this was because Lee's conditions of alcohol dependency syndrome and personality disorder cannot be treated "from a clinical perspective".

For criminal intimidation, Lee could have been jailed for up to two years and fined. He could have been jailed for up to two years and fined up to $5,000 for voluntarily hurting Ms Tham.

pohian@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jan 07, 2015.
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