Bad blood: Man slashes older brother with chopper, sets fire to his bedroom door

SINGAPORE - Annoyed with his older brother’s behaviour at home, a man used a homemade flamethrower to lure the older man out before slashing him with a chopper.

In the midst of the scuffle, Daniel Fock Ming Chai cut his 32-year-old brother on the right hand, chest and right leg.

The brother was left with multiple lacerations, as well as cuts to his forearm tendon and nerves in his right thumb and fingers, which will likely leave permanent numbness.

On Sept 3, Fock pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon. Two charges of mischief by fire will be taken into consideration for the 27-year-old’s sentence.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng told the court that the pair had a strained relationship growing up.

After their parents’ divorce in 2000, Fock lived with his mother in a rental apartment while his brother lived with their father in a flat.

DPP Ng said Fock’s mother moved out of the rental property some time in March 2023 to live in her shop. He did not elaborate on where the shop was.

Despite his mother asking him to move in with her, Fock chose to move in with his father, brother and younger sister as his computer was in the flat.

On June 16, 2023, Fock woke up and saw that his brother had left used dental floss on his toothbrush in the common toilet.

To express his displeasure, Fock fashioned a homemade flamethrower with an aerosol can and lighter before burning a soap holder in the toilet.

Later in the day, his brother spotted the burnt soap holder and became upset, and decided to think of ways to annoy the accused into leaving the flat. He went into the bedroom and switched off the home Wi-Fi connection, which angered Fock.

The accused retrieved the homemade flamethrower along with a chopper, which had a blade measuring 16cm, and started to burn the bottom of his brother’s bedroom door.

When his brother opened the bedroom door to investigate the noise, Fock swung the chopper at him, slashing his right hand.

At this point, the pair got into a scuffle, resulting in the older man suffering cuts to his right leg and chest. The brother underwent surgery on the same day and was warded for four days. He was given 40 days of hospitalisation leave.

Fock’s defence lawyer, Sean Tan, told the court that the accused had a disturbed childhood and was subjected to regular abuse by his brother.

The lawyer added that this abuse led to Fock being diagnosed with depression, which led to the adjustment reaction on the day of the incident.

“The victim was the one who abused my client. The victim was trying to agitate my client on the day of the incident. He was deliberately trying to annoy my client out of the house,” said Tan.

The prosecution noted that Fock had depressive disorder, but countered that his Institute of Mental Health report did not state that this had any contributory or causal link to his behaviour.

Fock will be sentenced on Sept 19.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.