Jail for man, 67, who slashed co-worker with kitchen knife after dispute over marker pen

SINGAPORE — Afraid of a co-worker after a verbal dispute with him over a marker pen, Wong Tuck Fook took two kitchen knives to work and used one of them to slash the colleague.

Wong, 67, was sentenced to four months and two weeks' jail on Wednesday (Jan 24) after he pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt with a cutting instrument.

Another charge of possessing offensive weapons was taken into consideration during sentencing.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Edwin Ho told the court that Wong and the 69-year-old victim were both working as repairmen at a power plant.

On the morning of Oct 2 last year, while the two were working, the victim asked to borrow Wong's marker pen because he had forgotten to get one.

Wong refused and told the victim to find one on his own.

Upset by this, the victim told Wong that he was disrespecting him by not letting him borrow the pen.

A verbal argument ensued that nearly escalated into a fight before other colleagues pulled them apart.

Wong saw the victim as "big-sized" so he was scared of him after the incident.

The court heard that Wong then decided to take along two kitchen knives to work the next day to scare the victim so that he would not dare to do anything to Wong.

Wong wrapped the knives in old newspapers and took them to his workplace in a black bag.

He arrived at work on Oct 3 at 7.05am and stood by the entrance to smoke.

About 10 minutes later, Wong saw his co-worker walking in his direction and decided to walk towards him while holding onto a knife inside his half-open black bag.

Wong confronted the victim about the quarrel they had the day before and then took out his knife to slash the victim on his abdomen.

Other workers nearby who saw what happened kept both men apart as they attended to the victim who was bleeding.

A police report was made and Wong was arrested at the scene.

The victim was sent to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital where he was found to have sustained a 17cm-long slash wound on his left chest wall and another 4cm-long superficial wound.

He was discharged the next day on Oct 4 and given 10 days of hospitalisation leave.

Seeking a jail term of between four and seven months' jail, DPP Ho said that even though it was a one-off attack by Wong, there could have been high potential harm as a result of the knife attack since the blade measured about 14cm.

He added that the court also had to consider that the hurt that Wong caused resulted in the victim's substantial period of hospitalisation leave.

For voluntarily causing hurt by means of an instrument for cutting, Wong could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined or caned, or been given any combination of these punishments.