October 1, 2024
SINGAPORE – A teenager slashed his abusive father twice in their Yishun flat after the 47-year-old man taunted him by calling him “ah gua” (Hokkien for transvestite) and challenging him to “chop someone with a knife”.
When his father, Mr Eddie Seah, left the fifth-floor flat after the initial confrontation, Sylesnar Seah Jie Kai, a 19-year-old student at the time, followed him, armed with two knives.
Seah believed that if he did not kill his father, the latter would kill him the following day, the High Court was told on Sept 30.
At the lift lobby, he repeatedly slashed his father’s head and neck with the knives, and they continued struggling at the staircase landing between the fourth and fifth floors.
After the teenager dropped one of the knives, his father picked it up and approached a fourth-floor unit for help before he collapsed.
Seah then lay down near his father and waited for the police and paramedics to arrive. Mr Eddie Seah was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Sept 30, Seah, who is now 21 years old, was sentenced to six years’ jail after he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide for killing his father on Oct 10, 2022.
He had initially been charged with murder, but the charge was reduced after he was diagnosed to be suffering from chronic adjustment disorder with depressed mood and an “other specified depressive disorder”.
The prosecution sought a sentence of between seven and 12 years’ jail “to reflect the accused’s intentional violence towards his father”, while the defence asked for five years’ jail.
In sentencing, Justice Dedar Singh Gill took into account the accused’s age, the medical evidence on his mental condition and his guilty plea.
The judge noted that the “unsavoury treatment” of Seah and his mother did not permit him to bring such violence against his father.
The mother, who was in court with her two other children, sobbed after she heard the sentence.
The bespectacled young man, who has been in custody since his arrest, was allowed to talk to his family for 15 minutes.
Seah is the youngest of the three children. At the time of the killing, he lived at the flat with his parents and older sister.
Prosecutors told the court that Mr Eddie Seah drank regularly and, when intoxicated, often verbally abused his wife and Seah. He also physically abused his children when they were younger.
On the evening of Oct 10, 2022, while Seah was showering after returning home, his mother left the flat to take care of her father.
When he came out of the shower, his father, who had been drinking, told him to call his mother to come home.
Seah replied “okay” and went to his room to have his dinner and watch videos on his computer.
Shortly after, his father entered the room and told Seah again to call his mother to come back to the flat.
Seah replied that he would do so after dinner, but his father insisted that he do so immediately.
An argument broke out, with the father calling his son “ah gua” and a coward. He further taunted Seah by asking him if he dared to “chop someone with a knife”.
Angered and humiliated by the taunts, Seah grabbed a knife with a 20cm blade and slashed his father in the living room.
Mr Eddie Seah suffered a cut on his right chest but did not retaliate.
Seah put the knife back in the kitchen and walked back to his room, while his father called his wife on the mobile phone and left the flat.
Seah then went back to the kitchen to take the same knife and a second one with a blade measuring about 15cm.
Prosecutors said he was afraid that if he did not kill his father, his father would kill him the following day.
He decided that he needed two knives because his father used to be involved in gang fights in his younger days.
Seah confronted his father near the lift and repeatedly slashed him in the head and neck.
The father raised his hands to block the blows and pushed his son towards the staircase leading to the fourth floor.
After Mr Eddie Seah walked away from his son on the fourth floor, Seah followed as he was worried about his father, who was bleeding, said prosecutors.
When his father collapsed outside a flat, Seah shouted for someone to call the police. When police officers arrived at the scene, he told them: “I killed him.”
He later confessed in his police statements that he had intended to kill his father. He said that he aimed the attacks at his father’s neck because he “thought that decapitation was one of the most instantaneous ways to die”.
An autopsy found the victim had suffered at least 24 incised wounds, including a fatal 18cm wound on the neck.
Dr Todd Masahiro Tomita of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) found that Seah’s depressive disorder had reduced his capacity to know the wrongfulness of his acts and the ability to control his actions.
Dr Christopher Cheok of the IMH, who assessed Seah’s condition in 2024, found that his risk of reoffending is low and his long-term prognosis is good.
In sentencing arguments, Deputy Public Prosecutors Derek Ee and Jordy Kay noted: “While the accused was labouring under a depressive disorder at the material time, it was not a licence to kill.”
The prosecutors said Seah had a clear opportunity to avoid further violence when his father left the flat without retaliating.
Instead, he chose to act on his anger towards his father and his “misplaced belief” that his father would kill him.
The prosecution added that the depressive disorder did not significantly impair Seah’s ability to think logically – he was able to conclude that he needed to arm himself with two knives.
But Seah’s lawyers, Ms Joyce Khoo and Mr Sunil Sudheesan, said their client had acted upon a “real fear” and genuinely believed that his father would kill him.
The defence argued that despite suffering years of physical and mental abuse, Seah was a “compliant and passive” individual who has never stood up against his father until the fateful incident.
According to the written mitigation, Seah felt overwhelmed after his father collapsed, and told his father that he hated him.
His father replied: “I’m sorry. I love you. Please forgive me.”
The mitigation said Seah then told his father to kill him, and when his father did not move, he put a knife on his own neck.
“However, our client’s father told our client, ‘don’t do it, it isn’t worth it’,” the lawyers said in the mitigation.