Lee Wai Leong — the first suspect to be arrested amidst the serial cat killings and abuse in Yishun — has pleaded guilty in court today.
The 40-year-old was arrested last year and was charged for tossing a cat over the parapet of the 13th floor of 115B Yishun Ring Road on Oct 30. TODAY reports that Lee has now admitted to doing so, claiming that he found the cat “very noisy”.
He had picked up the cat from a staircase landing at the ground floor, went up to the 13th floor and threw the helpless creature off the parapet. He then took the lift down to “see whether (it) managed to survive the fall”.
Obviously, the cat didn’t. The adult Mackerel Tabby domestic shorthair was certified to have died from a significant external traumatic incident with significant haemorrhage and fractures.
Said to be severely mentally ill by his family, Lee was remanded in the Institute of Mental Health for evaluation. Even Law Minister K Shanmugam appointed one of his branch volunteers to represent Lee pro bono, stating that everyone deserves a fair trial.
Though he was found to have moderate intellectual disability, he was not of unsound mind at the time of his offence.
Defence lawyer Josephus Tan stressed that the spate of cat deaths in Yishun cannot be pinned on Lee. More than 20 cats were found dead or abused in the Yishun district, and some continued even after Lee was arrested. A second suspect was arrested for his alleged involvement in the series of cruelty done unto cats.
Both the district judge and the prosecution agreed that Lee did not act with “perverse cruelty”. He is expected to be sentenced on June 7.
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