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When he arrived to drive his daughter home from her aunt’s house in 2018, she scolded him for being late and being a lousy father.
Tan Tian Chye apologized, as she had done countless times before Ms. Desiree Tan Jiaping, 35, directed her displeasure at her parents.
Ms. Tan, who had a mental disorder, continued to scold her father over lunch at a nearby mall. At one point, she squeezed the fork tightly and told him that she wanted to kill him with it.
She apologized profusely, but when they returned to her Bedok South flat, she armed herself with a metal pole for fear that she might damage it.
When he saw her pointing a knife at him in the kitchen, Tan hit her with the stick until she fell. Then he strangled her by pressing her neck with a piece of cloth.
He called the police, who found Ms. Tan lying on the kitchen floor with a pool of blood near her head. She was pronounced dead at the scene around 4.15 pm on November 19 of that year.
Tan, 66, was jailed yesterday for two years and nine months after pleading guilty to a reduced count of wrongful death that does not amount to murder.
With his sentence retroactive to November 20, 2018, when he was placed in pretrial detention, and the usual one-third referral for good behavior, the former Grab driver was released from prison yesterday.
In sentencing Tan, Judge Hoo Sheau Peng said the tragic case served as a stark reminder of the importance of mental health issues and the need for families to be vigilant.
He said that Tan was, by all accounts, a selfless and loving father. But it was discovered that she had had significant stress as a caregiver and succumbed to a major depressive episode that substantially affected her responsibility for her actions in killing her daughter.
Ms. Tan, who was unemployed, was assessed to have panic attacks with agoraphobia, a condition that made her anxious in unfamiliar situations, and “hypochondriacal worries” in 2012 after fainting at an MRT station.
She became anxious to leave the flat and increasingly trusted her parents and her boyfriend, who moved in with them.
Ms. Tan also became increasingly picky, causing her parents to repeatedly clean items that she felt were dirty and constantly scolding them.
To appease her, the pair gave in to her whims, apologizing and bowing to her as she demanded. Once, Tan even slapped his wife to appease her.
He suffered so much stress from taking care of Ms. Tan that he felt he and his wife were on the verge of suicide.
So often he took the time to carry it out and help her overcome her anxieties. She also bought a second-hand car for her boyfriend to drive.
In 2017, she asked her parents for money so she could apply for a custom-built apartment with her boyfriend.
She made them ask her younger brother to return the $ 50,000 they had spent on her education and to also make her the sole beneficiary of money from the Central Provident Fund.
Deputy Prosecutor Bhajanvir Singh told the court: “The deceased became more insistent and abusive, and blamed the defendant and his wife for not loving her and not giving her enough.”
FAN MANUALLY AWAY FROM SMOKE
In mid-2018, he was unhappy about the smell of cigarette smoke on the floor and demanded that his parents confront the neighbors. He also made them push the smoke away with pieces of cardboard.
On October 22, Ms Tan was diagnosed with an unspecified anxiety disorder, but refused the medication for fear of becoming dependent on it.
He moved into his aunt’s house, but continued to harass his parents for money, even asking Tan to drive more hours.
In their written submissions, DPP Singh and DPP Andrew Low said that Ms. Tan’s behavior put enormous pressure on her parents. So often he had to drive it and had trouble sleeping. He lost about 6 kg.
In asking for three years in prison, the DPPs said that while the case deserved some sympathy, Tan’s use of the metal bar was an aggravating factor.
But Judge Hoo agreed with defense attorney Derek Kang that Tan’s use of the pole was in response to the threat from his daughter and the knife in her hand.
Emphasizing the need to improve access to mental health services, he said it was unfortunate that the Tans did not seek help or receive much help.
She urged Tan to stick to his treatment plan and hoped his family had found closure.
With tears in her eyes as she thanked the judge, the prosecutors, her lawyers and everyone involved, Tan said, “May God bless you all.”
For wrongful death that does not amount to murder, you could have been imprisoned for up to 10 years and / or fined.
He cannot be spanked because he is over 50 years old.
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