Woman allegedly stabs teen daughter's thigh with knife to stop her from going out

After consuming alcohol, a woman stabbed her 15-year-old daughter's right thigh with a knife as she was upset with the girl for going out frequently.

The prosecution said the mother had targeted the girl's leg as she wanted to prevent the teenager from going out. The offender also used floorball sticks, a metal ladle and a small electric fan to hit her daughter.

The victim, who was warded at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) from June 20 to July 1, 2022, after the attack, is now under her maternal aunt's care.

On Monday (Nov 28), the 40-year-old offender pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt to her daughter with a weapon.

The mother cannot be named because of a gag order to protect the victim's identity.

The girl was preparing to go to bed in their flat on June 20 when her mother started scolding her.

The woman then asked her older daughter, 21, if the victim should be killed. Fearing her mother would turn her anger on her, the older daughter did not react and was hesitant to intervene.

The mother then went to the kitchen to get a knife before returning to the victim's room.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Tan Yanying said: "At about 1.37am, the accused asked if she should kill the victim before stabbing the victim in the right thigh, causing the victim to bleed. The victim also sustained a cut on her right arm as she was trying to stop the accused.

"The victim immediately tried to stop the bleeding by tying a shirt around her thigh. Upon seeing what had happened, the accused told the victim to clean up the blood on the floor before [the accused] headed back to the kitchen."

Afraid of what her mother might do to her next, the girl hobbled to her sister's room for safety.

When the mother returned to the room and saw the blood had not been cleaned up, she shouted at the girl to come back while blaming her for the mess. Scared of further angering her mother, the teenager complied.

Still unhappy, the woman repeatedly struck the injured girl with the metal ladle until it became bent out of shape.

The DPP said: "The accused then bent the ladle back into shape and resumed hitting the victim with the ladle, ignoring the victim's cries for her to stop and that she was in pain. Instead, the accused started mocking the victim's pain and suffering."

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An unidentified person who heard the commotion alerted the police, and officers arrived at the flat at around 1.50am.

The woman stopped assaulting the girl and told her to hide in a bathroom. She lied to the officers that there had been no dispute, and claimed she and her older daughter were merely talking loudly.

When the officers questioned the older daughter, she said everything was fine. After they left, the mother continued hitting the girl with an electric fan until it broke.

She also hit the teen with two floorball sticks before stopping and telling her older daughter to attend to her sister's wounds.

Court documents did not disclose what happened next, but the woman called the police at around 3.20am that night and came clean about what she had done.

The victim was taken to KKH where she was found with injuries including lacerations on her arms and right thigh.

Her assailant is expected to be sentenced on Jan 4, 2023.

For using a weapon to voluntarily cause hurt to another person, an offender can be jailed for up to seven years, fined, caned or receive any combination of such punishments.

The offender cannot be caned as she is a woman.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.