• 
• 

Singapore A 20-year-old vandal who was caned three strokes more than ordered in a Singapore prison is under treatment for mental trauma and depression, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

He has become quiet and withdrawn compared to his previous talkative and active state.

The prisoner was serving a nine-month term at Admiralty West Prison for two offences when the caning was administered on March 29.

Lawyer Joseph Chen, acting for the family, told The Straits Times he intends to take court action and will apply for punitive as well as exemplary damages.

The attorney-general's chamber is looking into the incident.

The young man, who was convicted of offences involving vandalism and abetting an illegal money-lending operation, is currently on home detention and due to complete his sentence in August.

He was sentenced to five strokes of a rattan cane but received eight in an apparent mistake by prison officials, the report said.

Ho Gee Lin, 52, said she visited her son on the day of the scheduled caning. He told her he was to be caned eight strokes and not the five prescribed in the sentence.

"My son had told them about the mistake, but they did not believe him," she was quoted as saying.

Eight strokes meant he was caned by two prison staff, each delivering four strokes, to ensure the last was as forceful as the first, the report said.

"I was very shocked," Ho added.

Her 32-year-old daughter subsequently checked with a court officer to ask if the prison authorities had been told the correct number of strokes.

"He told me it was too late," the daughter recalled.

The officer, Kelvin Kwek, has since left the subordinate courts.

Ho said she was asked to accompany her son when he reported to a home-detention-scheme reporting centre earlier this month. A legal officer apologized and offered her an undisclosed sum as compensation, the report said.

"I refused to accept," she told the newspaper.

In 1988 a 23-year-old offender convicted of armed robbery was given 48 strokes of the cane, twice the legal maximum allowed for an adult at a single trial.

He sued the government. The matter was subsequently settled out of court.//DPA