Woman who stabbed herself in Tampines police stand-off was on drugs, gets 6 months' jail

SINGAPORE: A woman who stabbed herself during a stand-off with the police in Tampines was sentenced to six months' jail on Wednesday (Jan 18) for possessing offensive weapons.

The court heard that Juliana Abdul Kadir, 53, was high on methamphetamine at the time - though a mental health report found no causal link between her substance use and the offence. 

She pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing a knife and a penknife blade in a public place, under the Corrosive and Explosive Substances and Offensive Weapons Act of possessing offensive weapons.

The court heard that Juliana was walking around the main road outside St Hilda's Secondary School along Tampines Street 82, on the evening of Sep 19 last year.

A person called the police, saying a lady was waving a knife in the area.

Police officers went down to the scene and spotted Juliana walking on the road, holding a knife and talking on the phone.

She disregarded police instructions and continued to wave the knife around. She then used it to stab herself in her lower abdomen, causing profuse bleeding, said the prosecutor.

After this, she remained visibly agitated and continued to threaten to hurt herself if police officers did not back off. During the confrontation, she held the knife to her neck and over her wrist multiple times, while shouting at the police to back off.

One of the police officers discharged a taser to prevent Juliana from further injuring herself, but missed.

She was eventually subdued and arrested. She was taken to the hospital in a stable condition, and later remanded for psychiatric observation.

"SELF-INDUCED"

Investigations revealed she had purchased the knife a few days earlier and intended to use it to replace a blunt knife at home. 

She was also holding on to a penknife blade, which she said was used for cutting straws to consume drugs.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Wu Yu Jie said Juliana was experiencing methamphetamine intoxication at the time, which induced a psychotic disorder.

According to a report from the Institute of Mental Health, Juliana has opioid use disorder and stimulant use disorder relating to the use of meth or ice.

But the report also said she was not of unsound mind at the time of the offence.

It found no causal link between her substance use disorders and the offence: For instance, Juliana did not obtain or carry the weapons for protection based on paranoid delusional beliefs, said IMH.

Citing the report, Mr Wu concluded that there was nothing to suggest that she was carrying the knife in public because of her psychotic episode.

As her drug state was "self-induced", Juliana should be made responsible for her actions while intoxicated, said Mr Wu.

Juliana had no lawyer and said she wanted to go ahead with her guilty plea.

"I plead guilty, sir," she told the judge. "I would like leniency, because at that time, I was in influence of drugs. I (was) hearing voices."

The judge told her the prosecutor had already addressed this point and that IMH found no causal link between her disorders and the offence.

"In fact if you are not a female offender, (it will be) six months and six strokes, but we'll just leave it since you are a first offender," he said.

The penalties for possessing offensive weapons without lawful purpose are a jail term of up to three years and at least six strokes of the cane.