Teen who punched, threatened father with knife, pleads guilty to 4 charges

SINGAPORE: On Monday (Jan 5), a court ordered reformative training for a teenage boy who had earlier pleaded guilty to four charges. The boy has a history of assaulting his father and threatening his uncle.

Reformative training is a sentencing option for offenders in Singapore, typically aged 16 to 21, and is aimed at their rehabilitation through changed attitudes and behaviours. It occurs in two phases: a detention stage of six or 12 months, followed by a longer supervision period.

The teen, who is now 17 and cannot be named due to a gag order, must now submit to reformative training for at least one year.

He pleaded guilty to one count each of assault, criminal intimidation, harassment, and cheating by personation. According to a report in Shin Min Daily News, eight additional charges were considered for the teen’s sentencing.

The boy’s offences

In July 2024, the boy, then aged 15, got into an argument with his father regarding the amount of allowance he should receive. The boy grew so heated that he took a karambit knife, a small curved knife popular in Southeast Asia, and then tried to attack his father.

Fortunately, his father managed to get the knife away from his son.  However, when his father did this, he received several punches in the face from the teen.

In March of last year, the boy and his father got into an argument again, this time over how long the air-conditioner should be kept on. This resulted in the boy taking a knife with a 23-cm-long blade from his bedroom.

Without saying a word, he stood near his father while handling the knife.

The boy also threatened his uncle, with whom he was living, on Oct 25, 2025. He asked his uncle if he could borrow S$30 from him, and the older man said no. The teen then took a karambit knife from his bedroom and held it to his uncle’s neck.

In addition to the incidents above, the boy has also used a falsified ID card to obtain a mobile phone.

Last year, a teenage boy also made the news after he had taken S$91,149 from his father’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts and insurance. The boy, who was 16 years old at the time he took his father’s money, used it for fishing trips as well as a trip to Korea. /TISG

Read also: ‘Father’s comedy of errors,’ S’poreans say about case of boy who stole S$91K from dad’s CPF & insurance to fund fishing & Korea trips