Court: Mental state of woman accused of causing son’s death in focus
File photo of Supreme Court: Yahoo Singapore
The hearing of a woman who allegedly caused the death of her four-year-old son resumed on Tuesday (26 July), with three psychiatrists disagreeing among themselves on the mental condition of the accused at the time of the offence.
Noraidah Mohd Yussof, 34, had already pleaded guilty to one charge of causing grievous hurt after she allegedly choked and stomped on her son Mohammad Airyl Amirul Haziq Mohamed Ariff in a rented flat in Eunos in 2014.
The psychiatrists, Dr Sajith Geetha, Dr Subhas Gupta and Dr Tommy Tan, had earlier submitted reports on the mental condition of Noraidah, and were in the High Court to provide further information.
Dr Tan was engaged by the Noraidah’s defence counsel, Sunil Sudheesen, to determine whether the former bridal model was suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome when she committed the offence in August 2014. The other two psychiatrists were assisting the prosecution.
Asperger’s Syndrome is a developmental disorder whereby a sufferer has great difficulties in social interaction and tends to communicate non-verbally.
Appearing before Justice Lee Seiu Kin at the High Court, Dr Tan said that based on his interviews with Noraidah and her family members, the accused was suffering from a major depressive disorder, specifically Asperger’s Syndrome.
“Her family members said that she does have some abnormal behaviour since young. The first time I got to know the case I knew there is something wrong with her because no mother will kill her own child,” he said.
In his opinion, Dr Tan said that Noraidah is unable to show empathy towards others.
However Dr Subhas, who had also spoken to the accused and her family members, disagreed with Dr Tan’s assessment, saying that Noraidah’s inability to show empathy does not mean that she is suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome.
Dr Sajith agreed with Dr Subhas’ opinion, and said that Noraidah was able to interact with her friends and were involved in a number of relationships prior to the incident.
“If she is suffering from it, she won’t be able to interact with other children when she was younger and unable to interact socially.
“In fact, she had in secondary school participated in a beauty contest and won the title of Miss Photogenic,” Dr Sajith said.
The hearing will resume on Friday (29 July), when both the prosecution and defence will be submitting their submissions.
