Man, 20, pleads guilty to throwing killer litter from HDB block
Upset that the police did not appear to be giving enough attention to his domestic issue, a man took out his frustrations by tossing killer litter from his HDB block.
Danial Ali Liaqat Ali, 20, pleaded guilty in the State Courts on Wednesday (14 March) to three counts of committing a rash act. He also admitted to one count of dishonest misappropriation of property, one count of theft and one charge under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act. Five other similar charges were stood down.
The court heard that sometime in November last year, Danial had gotten his 19-year-old girlfriend pregnant. She wanted to get an abortion while he tried to persuade her to keep the child.
At some point, Danial called the police hoping that they would be of assistance in the matter. His girlfriend eventually went for the abortion and Danial became “unhappy with the police for their perceived inaction”, said Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Tang Shangjun.
On 7 December last year, Danial saw that police officers were at his block investigating a case of killer litter caused by an unknown person.
He then decided to throw more items down from his block so that more police officers would be called to the scene. He did this so that the police would “do work and not slack off”.
Between 7 and 9 December, he threw down a tin of sardines, a glass cup and a padlock from his flat. The padlock shattered the rear windscreen of a vehicle in the carpark below his block.
The largest item he flung from his block was a mahjong table that he found along the common corridor. The table landed on top of the sheltered walkway, causing debris to land on the walkway itself.
Separately, he found a credit card belonging to a friend and kept it in order to pay for his own Uber rides twice in September last year. In January this year, he also stole a mobile phone from a friend during a football game.
Danial was first charged in court for the killer litter offences on 13 December last year. He committed the other offences while out on bail.
DPP Tang said the rash act charges were extremely serious, especially the one involving the mahjong table. He had also reoffended while out on bail.
Danial’s lawyer Carol Lee said that her client had committed the offences while he was 19 years old, and acted foolishly and immaturely.
He was also undergoing trying circumstances at the time of the killer litter offences, said Lee. He had thought irrationally that throwing items from the block would help release some of his pent-up tensions, she added.
Asking for Danial to be placed on probation, Lee said that he was a young first offender and had no malicious intent.
District Judge Eddy Tham said that Danial showed blatant disregard for the consequences of his actions, and that the offences committed were very serious. The judge called for a probation suitability report and will sentence Danial on 11 April.
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