SINGAPORE - Upset that her 15-year-old daughter was going out frequently, a woman stabbed the teenage girl’s right thigh with a knife.

On Wednesday, the 40-year-old woman, who had earlier pleaded guilty to voluntarily causing hurt with a weapon, was sentenced to 14 months’ jail. She cannot be named because of a gag order to protect the victim’s identity.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Yanying said in court documents that the girl was preparing to go to bed in their flat on June 20 when her mother, who had been drinking alcohol at home, started scolding her.

The woman then asked her older daughter, 21, if the victim should be killed. Fearing her mother would turn her anger on her, the older daughter did not react and was hesitant to intervene. Her baby brother and family maid were also at home at the time.

The mother then went to the kitchen to get a knife before returning to the victim’s room.

The prosecutor said: “At about 1.37am, the accused asked if she should kill the victim before stabbing the victim in the right thigh, causing the victim to bleed. The victim also sustained a cut on her right arm as she was trying to stop the accused.

“The victim immediately tried to stop the bleeding by tying a shirt around her thigh. Upon seeing what had happened, the accused told the victim to clean up the blood on the floor before (the accused) headed back to the kitchen.”

DPP Tan said the offender had admitted to deciding to stab her daughter in the leg to prevent her from going out.

Afraid of what her mother might do to her next, the girl hobbled to her sister’s room for safety.

When the mother returned to the room and saw the blood had not been cleaned up, she shouted at the girl to go back while blaming her for the mess. Afraid of further angering her mother, the teenager complied.

Still unhappy, the woman repeatedly struck the injured girl with a metal ladle until it was bent out of shape.

The DPP said: “The accused then bent the ladle back into shape and resumed hitting the victim with the ladle, ignoring the victim’s cries for her to stop and that she was in pain. Instead, the accused started mocking the victim’s pain and suffering.”

An unidentified person who heard the commotion alerted the police, and officers arrived at the flat at around 1.50am.

The woman stopped assaulting her younger daughter and told her to hide in a bathroom. She lied to the officers that there had been no dispute, and claimed that she and her older daughter were merely talking loudly.

When the officers questioned the older daughter, she said everything was fine. After they left, the mother continued hitting the younger girl with an electric fan until it broke.

She also hit the teenager with two floorball sticks before stopping and telling her older daughter to attend to her sister’s wounds.

Court documents did not disclose what happened next, but the woman called the police at around 3.20am that night and came clean about what she had done.

The victim was taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, where she was found with injuries such as lacerations on her arms and right thigh.

She was hospitalised there from June 20 to July 1. She then stayed at St Andrew’s Community Hospital for a period of time before she was discharged into the care of her maternal aunt.

For using a weapon to voluntarily cause hurt to another person, the victim’s mother could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined or both.