Teen was sniffing glue when he fell
By Chong Shin Yen
THE two boys climbed onto a railing by a big pond in Yishun to sniff glue.
One of them, Shawn Oh Poh Kiat, 14, later fell into the water and drowned.
His grieving father feels Shawn's friend was the one who led his son astray.
But Mr Oh Chee Eng, 38, refuses to harbour any grudges against the other teen, Tan Yun Chao, 18.
Instead, he pointed the finger at himself when The New Paper met him at his home four hours after a coroner's inquiry into Shawn's death yesterday.
State Coroner Imran Abdul Hamid found that there was no evidence to suggest foul play.
He found that Shawn had drowned when he accidentally fell into the pond after ingesting toluene. Toluene is a common solvent found in many compounds such as adhesive glue and paint thinner. It is sometimes used as an inhalant drug of abuse for its intoxicating properties.
Mr Oh, who did not show up at the inquiry, told TNP that he was at fault for having given Shawn too much freedom.
The food stall assistant said in Mandarin: "Instead of blaming someone else for his death, I should blame myself for not caring enough for him.
"I wasn't a good parent. I didn't know who he was hanging out with and allowed him to stay out late at night."
Mr Oh said he doesn't know Yun Chao personally although he knew that the teen had been asking Shawn out regularly.
"He didn't come and look for us or say sorry to us after the incident," said Mr Oh.
"But it's all right. I just hope that he doesn't blame himself and will move on." Mr Oh added that after Shawn's death, he has been trying to improve as a parent to his three other children, aged seven to 13.
"My wife and I now spend more time with them, and I'm not going to let them go out with their friends as freely as Shawn did."
The court heard that Shawn, a Secondary 2 student at Yishun Secondary School, had gone to the pond opposite Block 926, Yishun Central 1, with Yun Chao around 7pm on Dec 11 last year.
Before that, they had cycled to a neighbourhood shop where Yun Chao bought four tubes of contact cement.
They sat down on the walkway at the pond, where they each took a tube of contact cement, squeezed the contents into plastic bags and sniffed it.
Climbed onto railing
They then climbed onto the railing by the pond and listened to songs from Yun Chao's mobile phone.
That was when Yun Chao noticed that Shawn was crying. He did not know why Shawn cried and looked away. But he suddenly heard the sound of someone dropping into the water.
When Yun Chao looked into the pond, he saw Shawn's head bobbing in the water. Shawn, who could not swim, shouted "help" twice in Mandarin.
Yun Chao removed his clothes and jumped into the muddy water. He managed to pull Shawn to shore, but the latter was unconscious by then.
He tried in vain to resuscitate him. He then called the police before he continued to perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on Shawn.
Shawn was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital where he died the next day at 6.30am.
Yishun pond is used for rain water collection. The pond is 2 to 3m deep around the spot where Shawn drowned.
The court heard that Shawn was previously arrested three times for glue sniffing and was placed under probation by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).
Speaking at his Yishun Ring Road flat yesterday, Mr Oh said he thought that his son had stopped sniffing glue.
Mr Oh said: "He said he would not do it again and I thought he had learnt his lesson after being caught so many times.
"He was a filial son who would help his mother with the housework and took good care of his younger siblings."
"He said that he would not do it again and I thought he had learnt his lesson after being caught so many times."
This article was first published in The New Paper.
|
