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Argument over chopsticks leads to tragedy

A tiff over chopsticks might have caused a man to kill his girlfriend two years ago. (Getty Images)
A tiff over chopsticks might have caused a man to kill his girlfriend two years ago. (Getty Images)

A tiff with her boyfriend over a pair of chopsticks might have been what cost a woman her life two years ago.

The High Court heard on Monday that Tan Teck Soon, then 19, had thought his girlfriend, Chong Kar Yin, wanted to break up with him, and agitated he pushed her off a twelfth floor.

He jumped to follow her in death, but he survived the plunge instead, reported AsiaOne.

Tan, a welder, met then 20-year-old Chong, a waitress, through a friend. Both Malaysians worked in Singapore. The couple got together after a month's acquaintance and had been dating for five months before tragedy struck.

On 6 March 2009, at about 11:30pm, the couple met at the hawker centre beside the Bedok bus interchange. Chong ordered a bowl of fishball noodles and later asked Tan to get an extra pair of chopsticks, which he refused. Chong became unhappy and refused to talk to Tan, relenting only when he tried to pacify her by feeding her a fishball.

However, Chong was kept busy with her mobile phone throughout the meal, incurring Tan's ire.

The couple's chat on their way home to the girl's place at Block 565 in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 degenerated into a quarrel. When they reached the twelfth floor, Chong told Tan that they would never be able to change their tempers.

Tan took this to mean that she was trying to end their relationship, and decided to die with her. He pushed her over the parapet.

Seeing that she was dead, Tan then ran towards the parapet and flung himself over it. His fall was broken by some metal scaffolding that had been erected as part of the lift upgrading works and he survived.

Tan, who yesterday pleaded guilty to culpable homicide, will be sentenced on Friday.

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