Man who stabbed woman who spurned him found guilty of attempted murder
Spurned by a woman he was in love with, a man repeatedly stabbed and slashed her during a confrontation, leaving her with permanent scars.
The man, 33, was found guilty on one charge of attempted murder after a 17-day High Court trial on Wednesday (14 February).
In his judgement, Justice Woo Bih Li said the man inflicted multiple stab and slash wounds on the victim “with intention that if by that act he had caused the death of victim, would have been guilty of murder and by such act did cause hurt to victim”.
The man and the victim cannot be named due to a court-imposed gag order.
Justice Woo accepted a doctor’s evidence that said the man had no major psychiatric condition at the time of the offence. Based on witness testimonies during the trial, as well as four statements the accused gave the police, Justice Woo found that the man had admitted his intention to kill the victim.
In three of the statements given by the man to police officers, he had said, “I want to kill her”.
“The prosecution has established beyond reasonable doubt that the accused had intention to kill victim at the time of the offence,” said the judge.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Bhajanvir Singh previously told the court that the two had gotten to know each other at their workplace sometime in early 2013. The man later became “obsessed” with her.
When the woman told that him that she regarded him only as a friend and later decided to cut off contact with him, the man continued to harass her aggressively.
The court also previously heard that on 19 December 2013, the night before the attack, the man had approached the victim at her flat, asking for her hand in marriage. He behaved aggressively after being rejected by the woman’s parents and left only after the police were called.
On the morning of 20 December 2013, the man attacked the woman with a knife at the void deck of her block. Her screams attracted the attention of her parents, who rushed downstairs.
Her father saw the man sitting on top of his daughter holding a knife and pushed him away. The man fled and was caught by passers-by before being arrested by the police.
During the trial, the man claimed the woman was his “former girlfriend” who wanted to marry him. The woman disputed these claims when she gave evidence in court, although she conceded that she had told him jokingly that she wanted to marry him.
As a result of the attack, the woman suffered more than 20 stab wounds on her upper body and now has a 20cm-long scar on the left side of her head. Her father testified during the trial that his daughter is afraid to sleep alone at night and does not like going out in public because of the scars on her face.
The man will be sentenced at a later date. For attempted murder, he faces life imprisonment or up to 20 years’ jail and caning or a fine.
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