27 October 2005

Gan Huai Shi's Mitigation

More on Edmund Pereira's mitigation plea for his client:

Oct 27, 2005
Racist sentiments stemmed from baby brother's death:
Lawyer

GAN Huai Shi kept his deep-seated feelings towards Malays a secret, even from his parents and closest friends.

In his mitigation speech yesterday, Gan's lawyer Edmond Pereira told the court how shocked his parents and friends were when they found out what he had written.

'He never openly expressed his dislike for the Malays to anyone. In fact, the parents knew of his feelings towards the Malays only when he was questioned by the police,' he said.

To those who knew him, Gan was an introvert who spent most of his time in front of a computer.

Mr Pereira said the root of Gan's feelings lay in the death of his one-month-old brother 10 years ago.

On Aug 27, 1995, the baby boy began to suffer serious breathing difficulties and Gan accompanied his mother to take the baby to the hospital.

The first taxi they spotted was being boarded by a Malay couple. Gan's mother Koh Ah Luan pleaded with the couple to let them take the cab, but they refused.

They had to wait another 20 minutes for a taxi and by the time they reached the hospital, it was too late.

Mr Pereira said the incident left a 'very deep scar' on the youth.

'These ill feelings gradually grew with him over the years and unfortunately neither his parents nor his close friends knew about this,' he said.

Gan had since visited a psychologist and counsellors to 'resolve his many emotional issues'.

'It is extremely unlikely that he will offend again. He has learnt his lesson...and the Court's serious view of the matter will have a lasting and deep impression on this young man,' the lawyer said.

7 comments:

Merv said...

It seems to be that being depressed is becoming a good defence.

Any person will say: "I'm depressed / abused as a child / etc " as an excuse for committing a crime.

I mean, which well adjusted, not-depressed person would commit any crime in the first place?

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

Ooooh. Cynicism. :)

Now you know why Judge Reddy called for a pre-sentencing report. Basically he will get a 3rd-party, independent, professional counsellor to do some sessions with Gan Huai Shi;

and the counsellor will talk to GHS about his childhood and his life and his friends and his emotions and his goals in life and his family and his school and his hobbies and his problems;

and then the counsellor will submit a report on GHS to Reddy, for Reddy to think about.

Recruit Ong said...

Gan Huai Shi = 干坏事

hiak hiak hiak

Merv said...

I tend to think that psychiatic evaluation is mostly bunk.

How is that different practioners can have absolutely different conlusions on the same patient.

(For instance the Took / Huang Na case)

Gilbert Koh aka Mr Wang said...

Oh, that's simple. The accused person simply goes around meeting different psychiatrists until he finds the one with the most favourable opinion.

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