SINGAPORE: A 65-year-old woman who caused nuisance to her neighbours by splashing an unidentified liquid at the corridor was on Friday (Dec 28) given six months' probation in a case the prosecution described as "exceptional".
Probation is usually meted out to young offenders.
AdvertisementTan Siew Ngoh, who lives with her daughter in a flat in Yishun, repeatedly went to the common corridor in the wee hours of the morning last year to splash the liquid on the floor.
Neighbours said it was an oil-like substance and smelt of urine.
One of them installed a closed-circuit television camera, which caught Tan in the act on five separate occasions.
He also put up a fence barbed with cacti in a desperate bid to keep her out, but was later told by the town council to take it down as it was a fire hazard.
AdvertisementAdvertisementLast October, Tan poured an unknown liquid on the metal gate of another neighbour's flat, which caused the bottom of the gate to rust, making it difficult to open fully.
She took a pair of slippers from yet another neighbour's doorstep and left an unknown yellow liquid there.
Tan pleaded guilty to various charges including public nuisance and mischief.
She arrived in court on Friday in a wheelchair, accompanied by her daughter who said her mother suffers from dementia as well as other mental conditions that have not been diagnosed.
Tan’s lawyer Christopher Sim, who represented her under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, had previously asked for a probation suitability report, and she was found suitable for probation.
The prosecution did not object to probation for her case, noting that she would be placed under supervision and given treatment.
PROBATION IS TO HELP HER AND HER FAMILY, SAYS JUDGE
District Judge May Mesenas ordered Tan to undergo six months' probation, with the conditions that she took her medication and attended follow-up treatment for dementia.
She also has to attend follow-up assessment or treatment at the Institute of Mental Health if necessary, and her daughter put up a bond of S$5,000 to ensure her mother's good behaviour.
The judge stressed that Tan was not to reoffend, and said that the probation was to help her and her family. The process would also put her daughter in touch with the relevant agencies that would give her the support she needs, she added.
"We don't want to see her coming to court again, she's already very elderly," said the judge.
After the hearing, Tan’s daughter, who wanted to be known only as Ms Peggy, told reporters that she was happy with the probation meted out as it was for her mother's good.
Asked about whether she has spoken to the neighbours affected by her mother’s actions, Ms Peggy said that they ignore her as they "don't feel like talking" to her.
She added that she wished to apologise to them.
"We just want to say we will try to solve the problem," Ms Peggy said in Mandarin. "I feel a bit embarrassed. I hope everyone will not take what happened in the past to heart. There have been so many unhappy incidents, nobody wanted them."
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