While high on drugs, man slashed roommate for turning him into drug abuser and gets jail
SINGAPORE — Several months after his housemate introduced him to illegal drugs, Teo Kok Yung decided to take revenge on the other man for turning him into a drug abuser.
While under the influence of methamphetamine or cannabis, Teo attacked his friend with a knife, causing injuries that left his victim unable to follow his ordinary pursuits for at least 20 days.
On Thursday (April 21), Teo, 35, was jailed one year for consuming a specified drug, namely meth.
The Singaporean was also jailed another 10 months for voluntarily causing hurt to Edmund Wong Khin Cheung, 41, with a weapon likely to cause death.
Another charge of consuming cannabis, also known as marijuana or weed, was taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that Wong, who also faces drug-related charges, got Teo into drugs around April 2020. The two men lived in the same apartment with Teo’s sister.
WHAT HAPPENED
On Nov 12 that year, Wong gave Teo some cannabis to smoke while they were home. Teo, who worked as a designer at the time, went to sleep afterwards.
He woke up at 4am feeling angry at Wong. He admitted during investigations that he did not intend to kill the other man and had wanted to take revenge for becoming a drug abuser because of Wong.
He approached Wong, who was in the kitchen, with a kukri knife with a blade about 28cm long. Such knives originate from Nepal and has a distinct recurve in the blade.
He then slashed and stabbed Wong multiple times, directing the blows at his torso and back. Wong blocked some of the blows with his hands while trying to subdue and disarm him.
Teo’s sister woke up due to the commotion and emerged from her room. She noticed the two men scuffling and saw that her brother was bleeding, so she tried to physically separate them but failed.
She left the unit to look for help before calling for an ambulance.
Wong eventually managed to pin his friend to the floor and snatched the knife away from him. After subduing Teo, Wong also left the apartment.
Paramedics who got to the scene first called the police.
Teo was then placed under arrest, while Wong was taken to National University Hospital and diagnosed with several injuries such as superficial stab wounds and cuts to his chest, back, face and limbs.
UNDER THE EFFECT OF DRUGS
The court heard that Teo’s urine samples were found to contain meth. He had smoked it one to two days before his arrest.
When Teo was assessed at the Institute of Mental Health, a psychiatrist found that he was “labouring under the intoxicating effects of cannabis or meth” at the time, which “contributed significantly to his persecutory ideas” towards Wong.
However, the psychiatrist also found that he was aware that what he did was wrong, and was not of unsound mind.
Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the minimum punishment for drug consumption is one year of imprisonment. Those convicted can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to S$20,000.
For causing hurt with a weapon, Teo could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined, caned, or received any combination of the three.
