K
Kanetsugu Naoe
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Jul 1, 2011
Student pleads guilty to causing hurt to stepmum
By Khushwant Singh
A STUDENT, who slammed his bedroom door on his stepmother's left hand, slicing off her fingertip, pleaded guilty on Friday to causing serious hurt.
The Community Court called for a pre-sentence report to gauge Damien Tay Yao Sheng's suitability for probation. This will be tendered at the next hearing on July 28 2011.
According to the statement of facts, at about 7.40 pm on a Saturday evening in December 2010, the 16-year-old teen returned to the family's apartment in the Glendale Park condominium in Hillcrest Avenue with his businessman father.
As the teen stepped into the unit, his stepmother Tan Yah Peng, 43, a housewife, told him to wash his shoes.
He was not in the mood for the task but did not wish to spark off a confrontation by telling her this. Instead he kept mum and headed for his room. She followed him and there was a row between the two that resulted in a brief tussle near the door of his room.
He broke free and strode into his room, slamming the door behind him. She had her left hand on the door frame at that moment. He realised something was stuck in the door. He opened it only to see it drop onto the floor.
Tay picked it up and was shocked to find it to be a fingertip. He also saw his stepmother walking away with blood dripping from her left hand. The court heard that the teen immediately packed the fingertip in ice and called the police to say: 'I've injured my mother. Please send an ambulance.'
Madam Tan was taken to the National University Hospital and the fingertip was successfully reattached . Tay said he did not know his stepmother's hand was on the door frame when he slammed the door of his room. He also said their relationship was 'improving'.
