Honestly, this verdict really ruined my worldview.
I read the news about the 15-year-old boy who was accused of stabbing his 16-year-old schoolmate, Yap Shing Xuen, to death in a school toilet last year.
And now, he has been acquitted of murder. The reason?
According to New Straits Times, he was found to be of unsound mind when the incident happened. The court ordered him to be detained and treated at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta in Perak, at the Sultan of Selangor's pleasure. His future release will depend on medical assessments and the legal process. The hospital is expected to prepare reports for the authorities, who will decide whether he is fit to return to society.
I understand that. I understand that mental illness is complicated. But as an ordinary person reading this case, I still cannot stop asking: What about the girl who died?
Yap Shing Xuen was only 16. If she were still alive, she would be 17 this year. She should be preparing for graduation. Maybe thinking about university and maybe going out with her friends. Instead, everything ended in a school toilet. Just like that.
Her mother is now left sharing old photos and videos of her daughter online. She even wrote a long post about her daughter and their memories together. And honestly, reading about a mother having to look through old photos of her child because those are now the only things she has left is heartbreaking. A mother should be watching her daughter grow up and this is where I start struggling with the verdict (Source: Aaple Wong's Facebook Post).
According to psychiatric evidence accepted by the court, the boy had shown signs of serious mental illness years before the killing. Apparently, he had already experienced schizophrenia, and other symptoms like delusions when he was younger (Source: BBC). If that is true, then I have questions in my my mind. Why wasn't this dealt with properly five years ago? If there were warning signs five years ago, what happened during those five years? Was he receiving treatment? Did his family know? Did anyone around him realise how serious the situation was? Could more have been done?
We may never get satisfying answers to all of these questions.
Why did it take a 16-year-old girl losing her life before everyone realised how serious the situation was? That is what scares me. Because when ordinary people hear that someone was found legally insane after killing someone, many of us will naturally think: “Wait… so what exactly happens if someone plans a murder and then is found to have a mental illness?”
And I think that is where the public confusion comes from. From what was reported about this case, there appeared to be planning involved. He allegedly knew how to obtain weapons online. There was reportedly a written plan. And the attack was carried out in a specific location. I am not a psychiatrist. I am not a lawyer. So I am not going to pretend that I understand exactly how someone's mind works.
But seriously…
If someone can plan an attack, obtain what they need, and choose a place to carry it out, how does severe mental illness affect their understanding of what they are doing?
I don't know. Maybe there is a medical explanation that I don't understand.
But surely ordinary people deserve to understand that explanation too.
Because if we simply tell people, "He was mentally ill, therefore he was acquitted," without explaining the complicated medical and legal reasoning behind it, people are naturally going to come away with the wrong lesson. Some may think, “So if you kill someone and say you have a mental illness, you can get away with it?”
I hope this case does not become a lesson where everyone simply says, "He was mentally ill" and moves on. Her mother should not have to spend the rest of her life watching old videos of her daughter and wondering what she would be like at 17, 18, 20 or 25. And that is why, personally, I still find this verdict difficult to process.
Maybe the court decided according to the law. Maybe the psychiatric evidence was correct. Maybe the boy genuinely did not understand the nature or wrongfulness of what he was doing.
But even if all of that is true, I don't think we should be afraid to say that something still feels deeply unfair about this entire situation.
Because legal justice and emotional justice are not always the same thing. The boy may spend years receiving treatment. His future will eventually be decided through medical assessments and the legal system.
But Shing Xuen's future has already been decided. She doesn't get another assessment. She doesn't get to come home. She was 16. She should have had a lifetime ahead of her, and that is the part of this story that I don't think any verdict can ever make peace with.
Felicia Yoan (feliciayoan11@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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