Preventive detention for man who killed neighbour’s cat
He has been in and out of jail since 1983.
Tan Pwee Sin, 67, was last released in 2010 after spending 14 years behind bars for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. He had killed a 79-year-old neighbour in 1996.
Yesterday, he was sentenced to seven years' preventive detention for fatally slashing a neighbour's cat with a knife, threatening to kill the neighbour's nephew and dishonestly retaining stolen property.
Preventive detention is reserved for recalcitrant offenders, with no reduction for good behaviour.
Tan pleaded guilty on Aug 29 to his latest string of offences.
He lived on the eighth storey of a Housing Board block in Spooner Road, near Jalan Bukit Merah, and reportedly could not get along with neighbour Muhammad Bakhtiyar Jaffar, 31.
Mr Bakhtiyar owned two Russian blue cats and was unhappy that Tan had fed his pets without permission.
Tan, who owned three cats, bought a carving knife with a 36cm-long blade on Nov 2 last year. He placed it near his main door, in case Mr Bakhtiyar came to his flat.
On Jan 29 this year, he saw Mr Bakhtiyar's cat mating with one of his pets. He flew into a rage, retrieved the knife and slashed the cat's abdomen. It died the following day.
The court heard that on March 10, Mr Bakhtiyar's 11- year-old nephew spotted Tan playing with the other Russian blue cat.
'I WILL CUT YOUR NECK'
When the boy retrieved the cat, Tan told him: "I will cut your neck and throw you downstairs from the building."
Tan also dishonestly retained stolen property amounting to $6,950 in cash on Oct 10 last year.
Fraudsters from a police impersonation scam had earlier duped him into allowing them to use his bank account to receive their ill-gotten gains. He informed the police but decided to keep the money.
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