SINGAPORE: Last September, 26 youths from the Singapore Boys' Home sparked a six-hour standoff with police when they barricaded themselves in their rooms, destroyed and vandalised property after their plan to escape the juvenile detention centre failed.
On Thurdsay (Feb 9), three of the boys - Nicholas Koh Hwee Kiat, Zain Sani and Salman An-Farisi Yusri – all aged 16 were sentenced to terms of reformative training. Koh and Zain had an additional charge for belonging to a secret society taken into consideration.
A district court heard that a plot to escape from the Boys' Home was first hatched on Sep 1, 2016. That plan failed but was “revived” on Sep 19, when Koh, Zain and Salman joined 11 other boys for a second attempt.
The plan was written on a piece of paper which was passed around among the boys. It stated: “Plan A: Alarm sound, go out and go to staircase 1, follow me. Plan B: Alarm sound, go out and go to any room that you don’t like the boy and whacked.”
At 11pm, a first attempt at triggering the fire alarm failed. Twelve minutes later, a boy managed to activate the alarm by reaching his arm through the grilles of his room, the prosecutor said.
The boys had expected the grilles to open once the fire alarm was triggered but that didn't happen. Koh, Zain and Salman, who were held in the same room, then shook their grilles and demanded to be let out.
The boys later admitted that they had set off the alarm in an attempt to escape, when two officers from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), which runs the home, went to investigate.
An argument with the officers broke out and 18-year-old Muhammad Amiruddin Sabtu, a roommate of the three boys, urged them to incite other residents of the same floor to “create a ruckus”, the court heard.
POLICE NEGOTIATORS CALLED IN
What followed were scenes of chaos. Boys began to jump on their beds, slam their beds onto the floor and used bedframes to barricade themselves in their rooms.
They threw various items at a CCTV camera, vandalised the walls, smashed fluorescent light tubes and broke the toilet bowl. Other boys followed suit and soon, more than 20 of them were involved.
Some of the boys urinated through the grilles of their rooms onto the corridor, while others threw items at the fan, TV, and broke fixtures in their rooms.
The two MSF officers quickly retreated to their operations room, where they attempted to persuade the boys to “desist” via the intercom system, the prosecutor said.
But the boys continued to wreak havoc. Even the management of the home could not stop them. Police negotiators had to be called in and eventually managed to persuade the boys to surrender room by room.
In their negotiations with police, two of the boys made demands for cigarettes and for the 26 boys to be allowed to walk out of their rooms together. The demands were rejected and by the time the group surrendered, they had caused damaged to the facility amounting to over S$18,362
For attempting to escape legal custody, the boys could have been jailed for up to two years and fined. For vandalism, the maximum penalty is three years' jail and a fine of S$2,000.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...training-for-attempting-to-escape/3505718.htm
On Thurdsay (Feb 9), three of the boys - Nicholas Koh Hwee Kiat, Zain Sani and Salman An-Farisi Yusri – all aged 16 were sentenced to terms of reformative training. Koh and Zain had an additional charge for belonging to a secret society taken into consideration.
A district court heard that a plot to escape from the Boys' Home was first hatched on Sep 1, 2016. That plan failed but was “revived” on Sep 19, when Koh, Zain and Salman joined 11 other boys for a second attempt.
The plan was written on a piece of paper which was passed around among the boys. It stated: “Plan A: Alarm sound, go out and go to staircase 1, follow me. Plan B: Alarm sound, go out and go to any room that you don’t like the boy and whacked.”
At 11pm, a first attempt at triggering the fire alarm failed. Twelve minutes later, a boy managed to activate the alarm by reaching his arm through the grilles of his room, the prosecutor said.
The boys had expected the grilles to open once the fire alarm was triggered but that didn't happen. Koh, Zain and Salman, who were held in the same room, then shook their grilles and demanded to be let out.
The boys later admitted that they had set off the alarm in an attempt to escape, when two officers from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), which runs the home, went to investigate.
An argument with the officers broke out and 18-year-old Muhammad Amiruddin Sabtu, a roommate of the three boys, urged them to incite other residents of the same floor to “create a ruckus”, the court heard.
POLICE NEGOTIATORS CALLED IN
What followed were scenes of chaos. Boys began to jump on their beds, slam their beds onto the floor and used bedframes to barricade themselves in their rooms.
They threw various items at a CCTV camera, vandalised the walls, smashed fluorescent light tubes and broke the toilet bowl. Other boys followed suit and soon, more than 20 of them were involved.
Some of the boys urinated through the grilles of their rooms onto the corridor, while others threw items at the fan, TV, and broke fixtures in their rooms.
The two MSF officers quickly retreated to their operations room, where they attempted to persuade the boys to “desist” via the intercom system, the prosecutor said.
But the boys continued to wreak havoc. Even the management of the home could not stop them. Police negotiators had to be called in and eventually managed to persuade the boys to surrender room by room.
In their negotiations with police, two of the boys made demands for cigarettes and for the 26 boys to be allowed to walk out of their rooms together. The demands were rejected and by the time the group surrendered, they had caused damaged to the facility amounting to over S$18,362
For attempting to escape legal custody, the boys could have been jailed for up to two years and fined. For vandalism, the maximum penalty is three years' jail and a fine of S$2,000.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...training-for-attempting-to-escape/3505718.htm
