River Valley High School death: Teen who killed classmate with ax loses appeal against 16 years in prison

SINGAPORE — The Court of Appeal on Oct 23 upheld the 16-year prison sentence handed down to a teenager who killed his classmate at River Valley High School with an ax in 2021.

Singapore’s highest court rejected the teenager’s appeal and sentenced him to a prison term of eight to 10 years.

In handing down the court’s ruling, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said the teenager “displayed a frightening degree of premeditation and a cold and calculated approach” in planning and preparing for the murder.

The attacker cannot be named for legal reasons because he committed the crime when he was 16 years old.

Suffering from depression, he hatched a plan to massacre people in the school so that the police would shoot him dead. He purchased several weapons, including a battle axe, between March and April 2021.

On July 19 of the same year, he left his class and waited in the toilets, armed with the axe. He repeatedly hit Ethan Hun, 13, who had entered the toilet. The two schoolchildren did not know each other.

Chief Justice Menon noted that as early as five months before the attack, the teenager had searched the internet for a suitable weapon and chose a machete or ax because it would be suitable for an inexperienced user.

The teen then arranged to have the weapons professionally sharpened and also looked at the school’s plan.

A month before the murder, he looked at online videos to find out the most effective way to kill his potential victim.

Referring to two poems written by the teenager on the massacres, Chief Justice Menon said: “It seems to us that (the teenager) seemed fascinated by the idea of ​​a school massacre and by the notoriety what it could bring him.

“In addition to the degree of premeditation involved, this case also featured a high degree of brutality and callousness, and the targeting of a completely innocent and defenseless young victim who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. -he declared. said.

The teenager, now 19, showed no emotion when the verdict was announced. He appeared relaxed in the dock as he chatted with family members after the hearing ended.

The teenager was initially accused of murder. The case was later reduced to a charge of culpable homicide after it was established that he was suffering from major depressive disorder at the time of the murder.

He pleaded guilty to the reduced charge on December 1, 2023 and was sentenced to 16 years in prison by the High Court.

In his appeal on July 1, his lawyer argued that the High Court judge had not given sufficient weight to the teenager’s mental disorders in giving him a “manifestly excessive” sentence.

Mr Sunil Sudheesan argued that his client was in the depths of depression when he hatched his irrational plan and therefore his culpability had to be calibrated in that context.