Two teenage boys went on a knife-wielding spree in September, in what seems to be totally unprovoked attacks, The Straits Times reports.
Just past midnight on September 14, 18-year-old Muhammad Taufiq Mohamad Raffi and his 19-year-old friend Sivaraj Manickam were totally unhappy at a group of youths sitting outside a McDonald’s in Hougang, whom they thought were staring at them.
For the perceived slight, the duo planned an attack, grabbing knives from Sivaraj’s home and returned to the spot. They spotted a trio — assumed to be part of the original group — and started assaulting them. Sivaraj hit 21-year-old Chen Cheng Jun in the face and head with a baton knife while Taufiq slashed him repeatedly on the left arm with a kitchen knife. Chen’s two other friends were also attacked, and the three ran off as the berzerker duo gave chase.
Chen was given two weeks’ medical leave for his injuries.
On the same day, the two met up for lunch and decided to commit armed robbery. They bought watermelon knives and searched the streets of Lorong Napiri in Yio Chu Kang for a victim.
16-year-old Muhammad Nasrun was the unlucky victim — the two confronted the boy after he simply smiled at them. After initially letting him go, they changed their minds; kicking him in the back and slashing the victim’s head and body.
Nasrun managed to run away and stop a taxi, which conveyed him to a hospital to get treatment for a slash wound on his left shoulder and back.
The prosecution pushed for reformative training as the most appropriate sentence. Sentencing is postponed for Taufiq pending a reformative training report on Jan 7.
Sivaraj faced his trial in another court, as he faced another sentencing for promoting gaming in Geylang. He will be sentenced on the same day as Taufiq, pending a pre-sentence report for reformative training.
