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Jan 31, 2011
Court spares mentally retarded man jail time
By Khushwant Singh
Edwin Lim Hoe Meng, 28, was granted a conditional discharge for throwing down a neighbour's flower pot from the seventh floor last year. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM
EDWIN Lim Hoe Meng, 28, who is mentally retarded and threw down a neighbour's flower pot down from the seventh storey last year was granted a conditional discharge by a community court on Monday.
This works much like a suspended sentence, for which the convicted person is spared jail time as long as he does not offend again for the next 12 months. According to sentencing practices, first-time killer litter offenders would usually be jailed for about a month.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sherlyn Neo told the court that housewife Sarimah Abas, 46, was in her living room at 4.30pm when she saw Lim picking up the pot placed along the common corridor and throwing it over the parapet. It broke on impact on a patch of grass seven floors down. No one was hurt.
DPP Neo urged the court to call for a probation report but defence counsel Joseph Tan argued that a conditional discharge was more appropriate. He said Lim suffered epilepsy fits when he was three months old and only started speaking at age six.
A psychiatric report tendered in court indicated that Lim had an IQ of 56. The IQ level of a normal person is between 90 and 110. Mr Tan pointed out that Lim did not cause any trouble before this 'one-off incident' which only occurred because Lim had been left alone briefly.
'His parents, who have looked after him since birth, will ensure this will not happen again,' added the lawyer.
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