Indian-origin man guilty of killing mother dies in Singapore prison

Singapore, April 14

A 41year-old Indian-origin man with a history of paranoid schizophrenia died while serving life sentence for killing his mother in 2012, in Singapore's Changi Prison, media reports said.

Sujay Solomon Sutherson, who had stabbed and slit his 56-year-old mother's throat with knives, was convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder on August 11, 2015, The Straits Times reported.

He died of multi-organ failure due to septicaemia on September 8, 2022, State Coroner Adam Nakhoda said in a report dated March 30 ruling out any foul play.

Sutherson had a medical history that included schizophrenia, vitamin B12 deficiency, and sensory ataxia -- a loss of body coordination due to a nerve impairment, Nakhoda said in his report.

On September 5, 2022, Sutherson was seen by a doctor after he complained of weakness. He vomited three times that day, was experiencing speech difficulties, and was finding it hard to swallow, according to the doctor.

He was admitted to Changi General Hospital on September 6, 2022, and died two days later.

Sutherson was treated, but was deemed too ill for doctors to investigate the source of the sepsis, The Straits Times said.

His uncle, who visited him in prison about once every three weeks, said the family did not have any issue to raise about the care given to his nephew during his hospitalisation, incarceration, or the medical care that he was given in prison.

Sutherson had claimed during a High Court trial that his mother, Mallika Jesudasan, had grabbed his hair, scratched him and tried to take his clothes off at their apartment after he dismissed her request for money.

Jesudasan's body was found hidden under the bed by her brother, who had earlier made a futile search for her in the neighbourhood.

Sutherson told the police he plunged a knife through his mother's neck in self-defence; stabbed her again with a second knife, then slit her throat with a third knife.

When his attempts to burn her body failed, he hid her under his bed and cleaned up the flat.

--IANS