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SINGAPORE: Debt-ridden and facing jail for a cheating offence, a single mother thought that suicide was her only way out.
But Kang Kah Li, 37, also decided that she had to take her only son with her.
On Friday, the divorcee – who had earlier pleaded guilty to culpable homicide for killing 12-year-old Tan Eu-Jin – was jailed for seven years.
In mitigation, her lawyer Edmond Pereira urged the High Court to impose a lenient sentence because his client had a history of psychiatric disorder.
Mr Pereira said: "Our client had always harboured thoughts of ending her own life because she felt low and redundant about herself."
As for her son, Kang felt that "if she 'leaves him behind' no one will love and pamper him the way she does", he added.
Details of the tragedy emerged at Friday's hearing: Sometime in October 2007, Kang became unemployed and had trouble repaying her loans.
She then forged an employment letter and used this to support her application for credit cards. She was charged with attempted cheating on April 24 last year.
On May 15 last year, the day before she was to appear in court, Kang fed her son, a Secondary 1 student at St Gabriel's Secondary School, with sedatives at their Toa Payoh flat at about 10.30pm.
At around 1am, Kang used ribbons to tie up Tan's ankles and wrists, before trying to suffocate her sleeping son with a towel.
When that failed, she lifted the boy's head onto her lap and used her left thumb and index finger to press on his nose.
When Tan woke up and started choking, Kang continued pressing his nose until he stopped breathing.
She later downed 50 tablets of Nifedipine, medication used for treating high blood pressure, with beer and slashed her wrists using a penknife.
She then called her boyfriend, Mr Andrew Chan Eng Choon. He rushed to the flat at about 2.30am and found Kang bleeding and the boy unconscious. An ambulance was called, but attempts to revive Tan were unsuccessful. Kang was subsequently arrested.
Dr Jerome Goh from the Institute of Mental Health said that while Kang was of sound mind at the time of the offence, she "was suffering from such abnormality of the mind (that it) substantially impaired her mental responsibility at the time".
In passing the jail sentence, Justice Chan Seng Onn said he was doing it "with a heavy heart" due to the "tragic" nature of the incident.
But, the seriousness of the crime also called for a stiff sentence, he added.
- TODAY/so
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