Jail for man, 66, who stabbed neighbour over staring incidents
Daniel Wong Wun Meng, a physical education and math teacher with Bukit Batok Secondary School, was convicted on two charges of counterfeiting and using the home-printed S$100 counterfeit notes. He had used the notes to engage the services of a prostitute. Photo: REUTERS
SINGAPORE — A 66-year-old unemployed man was jailed three years and seven months on Friday (Oct 6), after he stabbed another man who had been embroiled in staring incidents with him.
Allan Yeo Hooi Huat was convicted of voluntarily causing hurt with a weapon. On April 8, he stabbed Mr Pang Kok Beng, 58, four times in the chest at the void deck of Block 38, Chai Chee Avenue. The two men lived one housing block away from one another.
The court heard that about one year before this, Mr Pang had slapped Yeo on the face after a staring incident, but they managed to settle the matter amicably.
On the evening of April 8, Mr Pang was walking home after buying dinner and saw Yeo, who was seated at the void deck of Block 38. The two men stared at each other.
After Mr Pang was out of sight, Yeo retrieved a fruit knife from his letterbox and kept it in his pocket.
About half an hour later, Mr Pang was back at the void deck, and he and Yeo made eye contact again.
Mr Pang walked over to where Yeo was sitting with two women and asked in Hokkien why Yeo kept staring at him.
Yeo stood up, Mr Pang pushed him off, and Yeo pulled out the knife from his pocket. He chased Mr Pang before pinning him to a wall near a bicycle bay and stabbed him a few times.
The two continued to struggle and only stopped when their neighbour Lee Chye Sing, 47, shouted at them.
Some 10 minutes after the attack, Yeo went home and called 999, saying: “I stabbed someone just now at the void deck. I think he went back to his home at Block 39. I want to surrender.”
When the police arrived later, numerous blood stains could be seen at the block’s walkway and bicycle bay.
Mr Pang was admitted to the hospital for a week after suffering three 2cm-long stab wounds and another that measured 1.5cm on his chest. A medical report stated that his chest injuries were life-threatening.
In sentencing Yeo, District Judge May Mesenas noted that it is a “serious offence with a weapon used” — a 10cm blade in this case — and issued a general deterrence sentence that is almost twice what Yeo’s lawyer Doraraj Sinnappan had asked.
“People should not (think that they can) go about using knives (to hurt others),” District Judge Mesenas said.
Yeo could have been jailed up to seven years for the crime.
