'Never can I forgive myself': Man jailed for stabbing ex-girlfriend to death
SINGAPORE: A 28-year-old man was sentenced to 13 years' jail on Monday (Nov 12) for killing his ex-girlfriend after a quarrel outside his Boon Lay flat.
Neo Chun Zheng stabbed Soh Yuan Lin once in the neck with a folding knife, a blow that killed her on Nov 26, 2015.
AdvertisementThe pair had been in a “toxic” relationship, said Neo as he made an apology in court.
Instead of merely tendering his apology as a written document through his lawyers, Neo asked if he could read it to court after both the defence and prosecution had addressed Judicial Commissioner Pang Khang Chau on sentencing.
The judge allowed him to speak, and Neo was visibly emotional as he stood and read from a piece of paper.
"Not a day passes without me wishing that I could somehow undo the loss which I have caused,” he said in a soft voice.
AdvertisementAdvertisement"I have completely failed her and never can I forgive myself for all that had happened. It was a toxic relationship but this would not take away my love for her. I miss Yuan Lin dearly and I will always love her with all my heart each and every day.”
TROUBLED RELATIONSHIP
The pair met in April 2014 when they were both 23 and working in customer relations in the Marina Bay Sands casino.
They began dating in September 2014, but Ms Soh said the relationship was non-exclusive and did not want it to be publicly known. Neo accepted this.
Sometime in March 2015, Neo found out that Ms Soh had also been dating another colleague and was sexually intimate with him. The pair quarrelled over this, and Ms Soh said she did not wish to be controlled by him.
Ms Soh ended the relationship towards the end of September 2015 as she felt that Neo was too possessive and over-controlling, the prosecution said. She also found out that Neo had been accessing her emails, along with messages and photos on her phone.
She told Neo that she needed a break from being in a relationship and wanted to remain single. Neo accepted this and they remained on speaking terms, court documents said.
However, Neo later found out that Ms Soh had planned a trip to Bangkok with some friends, including a man she had met at a club.
[h=3]READ: Man accused of killing former air stewardess pleads guilty to reduced charge[/h]Out of anger, Neo told some of his colleagues that he wanted Ms Soh to die an "ugly death". He found out that Ms Soh had installed the Tinder dating application on her phone and was using it to speak to men.
He later told another friend at work that he contemplated using acid to disfigure Ms Soh.
In late 2015, Neo kept telling Ms Soh how much she had hurt him, and told her to make it up to him or resign from her job at Marina Bay Sands. Ms Soh relented and agreed to do him favours such as buying him meals or going out with him.
THE NIGHT OF THE INCIDENT
On Nov 26, 2015, Ms Soh bought dinner for Neo on his request and delivered it to his Boon Lay flat. She hung the packet of food on the front gate and wanted to leave, but Neo blocked her way and asked to talk to her.
She said she was not in the mood to talk to him and they began quarrelling in the common corridor outside the flat.
Neo’s mother, who was at home, witnessed the commotion and told her son to let her leave.
When Ms Soh used her mobile phone to inform her mother of the Boon Lay address, Neo snatched it and hid it under a loaf of bread on the dining table. He then took a black folding knife from his bedroom and hid it behind his back.
Ms Soh saw the knife and shouted for help. Neo's mother stood between her son and his ex-girlfriend, and tried to wrestle the weapon from him.
This knocked the spectacles off Neo's face and he pushed her to the floor. He then swung the knife once towards Ms Soh's neck. She began bleeding from her neck and mouth and collapsed to the floor.
A neighbour called the police while Neo threw the knife into the rubbish chute. He surrendered to the police when they arrived and confessed to stabbing Ms Soh. He also told them where he had thrown the weapon.
Ms Soh was pronounced dead that night.
PROSECUTORS CITE DELIBERATION, DEFENCE CITES REMORSE
Deputy Public Prosecutors Dwayne Lum and Wong Kok Weng asked for a sentence of at least 15 years' jail, saying that there was "deliberation and determination behind the accused's actions".
Describing Neo as possessive and emotionally manipulative, they said "there must be a deterrent message sent that no partner in a relationship, no matter how tumultuous the background, should be allowed to resort to emotional manipulation of their partners or inflict violence on them".
"At the time of the offence, the accused was clearly still angry over the deceased sleeping with other men ... he was still nursing what he perceived as 'hurt' the deceased had dealt to him by her actions and he was looking to punish her for that," said the prosecution.
Defence lawyers R Thrumurgan and Tan Jun Yin said their client was remorseful, and pointed out that Neo had surrendered to the police.
Ms Tan said: "Although Neo knew cognitively that it was a non-exclusive relationship, the fact is that he could not let her go. She was pulling away from him, but at the same time, they were also having sexual relations. They even went on a holiday."
"Even from the mouths of police officers at the scene - once Neo had surrendered himself, he immediately apologised and directed them to look after the deceased," she added.
She cited the statement of a police officer who had attended to Neo at the scene of the crime: "The accused kept asking on the victim's condition. The accused then told me - just sentence me to death."
Ms Tan said Neo regretted it once he stabbed Ms Soh, adding that he had wrapped a towel around her neck and called for an ambulance.
"The remorse was there from the start," she said.
Neo was not suffering from delusional disorder of the jealousy type or any psychiatric condition at the time of the offence, a Newton Hearing had found.
In delivering his sentence, the judge said he did not accept the prosecution's suggestion that Neo acted with deliberation when he went into his flat to retrieve the knife before pushing away his mother and stabbing Ms Soh in the neck.
"The facts do not lead me inevitably to the conclusion that in the walk from bedroom to corridor he had already intended to hurt the deceased," he said.
On the defence's point about remorse, he accepted that there was "enough evidence" of it.
In his apology read in court, Neo asked Ms Soh's family for forgiveness and said he was sorry for causing them “tremendous grief, sorrow and suffering”.
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SINGAPORE: A 28-year-old man was sentenced to 13 years' jail on Monday (Nov 12) for killing his ex-girlfriend after a quarrel outside his Boon Lay flat.
Neo Chun Zheng stabbed Soh Yuan Lin once in the neck with a folding knife, a blow that killed her on Nov 26, 2015.
AdvertisementThe pair had been in a “toxic” relationship, said Neo as he made an apology in court.
Instead of merely tendering his apology as a written document through his lawyers, Neo asked if he could read it to court after both the defence and prosecution had addressed Judicial Commissioner Pang Khang Chau on sentencing.
The judge allowed him to speak, and Neo was visibly emotional as he stood and read from a piece of paper.
"Not a day passes without me wishing that I could somehow undo the loss which I have caused,” he said in a soft voice.
AdvertisementAdvertisement"I have completely failed her and never can I forgive myself for all that had happened. It was a toxic relationship but this would not take away my love for her. I miss Yuan Lin dearly and I will always love her with all my heart each and every day.”
TROUBLED RELATIONSHIP
The pair met in April 2014 when they were both 23 and working in customer relations in the Marina Bay Sands casino.
They began dating in September 2014, but Ms Soh said the relationship was non-exclusive and did not want it to be publicly known. Neo accepted this.
Sometime in March 2015, Neo found out that Ms Soh had also been dating another colleague and was sexually intimate with him. The pair quarrelled over this, and Ms Soh said she did not wish to be controlled by him.
Ms Soh ended the relationship towards the end of September 2015 as she felt that Neo was too possessive and over-controlling, the prosecution said. She also found out that Neo had been accessing her emails, along with messages and photos on her phone.
She told Neo that she needed a break from being in a relationship and wanted to remain single. Neo accepted this and they remained on speaking terms, court documents said.
However, Neo later found out that Ms Soh had planned a trip to Bangkok with some friends, including a man she had met at a club.
[h=3]READ: Man accused of killing former air stewardess pleads guilty to reduced charge[/h]Out of anger, Neo told some of his colleagues that he wanted Ms Soh to die an "ugly death". He found out that Ms Soh had installed the Tinder dating application on her phone and was using it to speak to men.
He later told another friend at work that he contemplated using acid to disfigure Ms Soh.
In late 2015, Neo kept telling Ms Soh how much she had hurt him, and told her to make it up to him or resign from her job at Marina Bay Sands. Ms Soh relented and agreed to do him favours such as buying him meals or going out with him.
THE NIGHT OF THE INCIDENT
On Nov 26, 2015, Ms Soh bought dinner for Neo on his request and delivered it to his Boon Lay flat. She hung the packet of food on the front gate and wanted to leave, but Neo blocked her way and asked to talk to her.
She said she was not in the mood to talk to him and they began quarrelling in the common corridor outside the flat.
Neo’s mother, who was at home, witnessed the commotion and told her son to let her leave.
When Ms Soh used her mobile phone to inform her mother of the Boon Lay address, Neo snatched it and hid it under a loaf of bread on the dining table. He then took a black folding knife from his bedroom and hid it behind his back.
Ms Soh saw the knife and shouted for help. Neo's mother stood between her son and his ex-girlfriend, and tried to wrestle the weapon from him.
This knocked the spectacles off Neo's face and he pushed her to the floor. He then swung the knife once towards Ms Soh's neck. She began bleeding from her neck and mouth and collapsed to the floor.
A neighbour called the police while Neo threw the knife into the rubbish chute. He surrendered to the police when they arrived and confessed to stabbing Ms Soh. He also told them where he had thrown the weapon.
Ms Soh was pronounced dead that night.
PROSECUTORS CITE DELIBERATION, DEFENCE CITES REMORSE
Deputy Public Prosecutors Dwayne Lum and Wong Kok Weng asked for a sentence of at least 15 years' jail, saying that there was "deliberation and determination behind the accused's actions".
Describing Neo as possessive and emotionally manipulative, they said "there must be a deterrent message sent that no partner in a relationship, no matter how tumultuous the background, should be allowed to resort to emotional manipulation of their partners or inflict violence on them".
"At the time of the offence, the accused was clearly still angry over the deceased sleeping with other men ... he was still nursing what he perceived as 'hurt' the deceased had dealt to him by her actions and he was looking to punish her for that," said the prosecution.
Defence lawyers R Thrumurgan and Tan Jun Yin said their client was remorseful, and pointed out that Neo had surrendered to the police.
Ms Tan said: "Although Neo knew cognitively that it was a non-exclusive relationship, the fact is that he could not let her go. She was pulling away from him, but at the same time, they were also having sexual relations. They even went on a holiday."
"Even from the mouths of police officers at the scene - once Neo had surrendered himself, he immediately apologised and directed them to look after the deceased," she added.
She cited the statement of a police officer who had attended to Neo at the scene of the crime: "The accused kept asking on the victim's condition. The accused then told me - just sentence me to death."
Ms Tan said Neo regretted it once he stabbed Ms Soh, adding that he had wrapped a towel around her neck and called for an ambulance.
"The remorse was there from the start," she said.
Neo was not suffering from delusional disorder of the jealousy type or any psychiatric condition at the time of the offence, a Newton Hearing had found.
In delivering his sentence, the judge said he did not accept the prosecution's suggestion that Neo acted with deliberation when he went into his flat to retrieve the knife before pushing away his mother and stabbing Ms Soh in the neck.
"The facts do not lead me inevitably to the conclusion that in the walk from bedroom to corridor he had already intended to hurt the deceased," he said.
On the defence's point about remorse, he accepted that there was "enough evidence" of it.
In his apology read in court, Neo asked Ms Soh's family for forgiveness and said he was sorry for causing them “tremendous grief, sorrow and suffering”.
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