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Justice Rajah also ordered Zhang's husband to sign a $10,000 bond to ensure her good behaviour. As for two pending theft charges against her - she stole again on New Year's Eve while on bail - the judge suggested that prosecutors put them on hold for now. Zhang, a trained architect who lost her job after her second conviction in 1996, is the second kleptomaniac to come before the appeals court in the past year. In November, Justice Rajah made a landmark judgment in the case of 26-year-old Goh Lee Yin in what has been hailed as an 'enlightened approach' in dealing with mentally ill offenders. Laying out sentencing guidelines for future cases, he ruled that offenders who have been diagnosed as kleptomaniacs by independent doctors shouldbe placed on probation. However, he made it clear that 'acts of pretence' would not be condoned. In his judgment, he noted that the road to recovery for a kleptomaniac is not a straight one but instead follows an 'upward but jagged trajectory'. One psychiatrist's experience revealed a complete recovery rate of around 'two to three patients out of about seven to eight cases'. Zhang first sought psychiatric help after her second arrest in 1996 and was diagnosed with depression. Later, three different psychiatrists diagnosed her as suffering from kleptomania. She also has obsessive-compulsive disorder, an anxiety disorder characterised by obsessive thoughts and repetitive behaviours, as well as bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder characterised by episodes of self-induced vomiting. Now on medication, she sees a psychologist and a psychiatrist, and also volunteers at the Institute of Mental Health. Zhang's first brush with the law was in 1993, for which she was jailed for a day and fined $1,000. She was jailed for three weeks in 1996 and nine months in 2002. In 2006, she was hauled to court a fourth time. Her nine-month jail term was cut to six months on appeal. Last year, she stole again and was given a nine-month jail term. She appealed. Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Leong Wing Tuck said the prosecution did not object to her being put on probation. The reed-thin Zhang, her face free of make-up and her hair in a ponytail, appeared tense in court. When approached after the hearing, her husband, a lecturer who gave his name only as Mr Tan, said he was happy that the court had given his wife a chance and hoped she would be able to re-integrate into society.
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