Man gets life in prison for killing drunk neighbour in Punggol

Accused, who stabbed victim using latter's knife, also to receive 10 strokes of the cane

- Selina Lum

In 2008, Heng Boon Chai was given eight years' jail for stabbing his 55-year-old uncle to death while suffering paranoid delusions.

After his release from prison, Heng lived a quiet life with his mother in a Punggol flat.

But in 2021, a dispute with his neighbour over a noisy gate and door led to one final confrontation where Heng fatally stabbed the man with the victim's knife.

In 2008, Heng, who suffers from schizophrenia, had pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide after it was found that his condition had diminished his responsibility for killing his uncle.

On Nov 7, 2024, Heng, 46, was sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 strokes of the cane for the murder of his next-door neighbour, Mr Kim Wee Ming, a 46-year-old hawker stall assistant.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Christina Koh and Zhou Yang told the court that in 2018, following a stay at a care centre, Heng moved in with his mother at her one-room rental flat in Sumang Walk, near Punggol Central.

Heng and his mother, Madam Ho Yoke Kiew, 72, initially had a cordial relationship with Mr Kim, who had moved there in 2019.

They exchanged pleasantries along the corridor, and Mr Kim offered them pineapple tarts during Chinese New Year.

But Mr Kim was irritated by the noise Madam Ho made when she closed the gate and door of her flat.