River Valley High School death: Teen gets 16 years' jail for killing schoolmate with axe

An 18-year-old on Friday (Dec 1) was sentenced to 16 years in jail after pleading guilty to killing his schoolmate on River Valley High School's campus.

He admitted to slashing the head, neck and body of a 13-year-old boy inside a school toilet on July 19, 2021. The younger boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

His jail sentence is backdated to the day of his arrest, said Justice Hoo Sheau Peng.

She said that while the offender suffered from depression for about six months leading up to the attack, he retained control over his actions and knew they were legally and morally wrong.

During the hearing on Friday, the court lifted the gag order on the victim's identity at the request of his parents, naming him as Ethan Hun Zhe Kai, reported CNA. 

Police investigations showed that the pair did not know each other.

The offender had picked his victim "entirely at random" to carry out a plan which would result in his own death as the police intervened in a life-threatening situation, the court heard.

He was also found to have watched online videos that desensitised him to the taking of a life.

The teen was initially handed a murder charge, but it was later reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder after the Institute of Mental Health assessed that he was suffering from clinical depression at the time of the offence. 

Those convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder can be jailed for up to 20 years, fined or caned, or receive any combination of such punishments.

As the offender was 16 at the time of the offence, he cannot be named under the Children and Youth Act. 

READ ALSO: Sec 4 student from River Valley High charged with murder of schoolmate took O levels in remand

claudiatan@asiaone.com