A caretaker from St Hilda’s Church at Ceylon Road has been jailed for 1.5 years on Thursday (21 December) for setting fire to a room in the church on 16 April.
60 year old, Yeo Liang Chai was angry with what he considered to be security lapses in the church. He told his superiors and colleagues but was brushed aside.
So he became upset and on 16 April at around 7am, he took a bottle of kerosene and set fire to a room which was used to store donated books and clothes.
The damage of the fire amounted to more than $32,000.
When police arrived at the scene, Yeo showed the police a “jihad” note to mislead investigations.
According to the Deputy Public Prosecutor, “The accused recalled a previous incident in December 2016 whereby one of the church’s in-house Malay contractors was arrested for theft. The accused believed that he could use the note to create the impression that the friends of the Malay contractor wanted to seek revenge for the arrest.”
He only revealed the truth later in the day of the fire when he was brought to Bedok Police Division for further questioning.
For mischief, he could gave been jailed for up to 7 years and fined.
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