Yishun cat killer has not left home since release from remand: Defence lawyer
Left: Photo of padlock from inside master bedroom (left). Right: Photo of padlock on the main gate of the accused’s flat (Photos courtesy of Fortis Law Corporation)
After being released from remand in January, the Singaporean man who allegedly threw a cat to its death from the 13th floor of a HDB flat in Yishun has not left his home.
On Tuesday (10 May), defence lawyer Josephus Tan said in court that Lee Wai Leong’s parents decided to lock him up in the house, even forcing him to sleep on a separate mattress in their master bedroom. Tan was presenting mitigating circumstances for the judge to decide on Lee’s sentencing.
Lee, 41, pleaded guilty to one charge under the Animals and Birds Act for causing the death of one cat by throwing it off the 13th floor of Blk 115B Yishun Ring Road because it was “noisy”.
District Judge Mathew Joseph has agreed to the defence’s call for a probation suitability report, noting that this is Lee’s first offence, and that he “did not act with perverse cruelty”. A report by the Institute of Mental Health also indicated Lee has “moderate intellectual disability”.
Tan, who described Lee as “simple-minded”, also said that Lee’s parents had padlocked both the main gate of the house and the master bedroom door following his release from remand on 19 January because they did not want him to “go out wandering in the night”.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Zu Zhao also supported the call for a probation suitability report, saying that Lee did not appear to act with “cruel intent”. One of the options for probation mentioned by DPP Lee include an “extended period of supervision”.
The case will be mentioned in court again on 7 June.
