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A JOBLESS man was yesterday given 15 years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane for stabbing another man to death over a pushing incident
Tan Keng Huat, 36, convicted of culpable homicide, was chided by Justice Steven Chong for having committed an “irrational act” that led to a “completely unnecessary loss of a life”.
Tan had in June 2009 stabbed Mr John Vettamooto, then 46, in the chest with a diving knife, causing a chest wound 18cm deep and 5cm wide.
Mr John died in hospital 111/2 hours later.
An argument had broken out earlier when Mr John accidentally bumped into Tan’s older brother, Mr Tan Thian Chye, 41, at the foot of a block of flats in Redhill Close.
The argument turned into a fist fight, during which Mr John yanked off Mr Tan’s ivory necklace and threw it on the ground.
Tan Keng Huat and another brother, Tian Sze, when told of this incident, confronted Mr John.
Tian Sze went at Mr John with a plastic chair, while Keng Huat stabbed him in the chest and slashed his cheek twice.
The same night, the two brothers fled to Malaysia, where they went into hiding.
Tian Sze was arrested, extradited three weeks later and convicted of voluntarily causing hurt. He was sentenced to two months in jail.
Keng Huat was arrested by Malaysian police in August that year for overstaying.
In mitigation, his court-appointed lawyer Christopher Bridges said his client was remorseful, had a lower-than-average IQ of 72, and had suffered from depression while on the run.
This was not Tan Keng Huat’s first brush with the law. He has served jail time for drug possession, drug consumption and house breaking since 1992.
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