Circuit Road murder: Man who strangled nurse and tried to have sex with corpse jailed for life

SINGAPORE — A cafeteria worker who strangled a nurse in a jealous rage then tried to have sex with her corpse was given life imprisonment after he was found guilty of murder on Friday (7 February).

Boh Soon Ho, 51, was found guilty of murder committed with the intention of causing bodily injury, and that the bodily injury inflicted was sufficient to cause death. The maximum punishment under this section is death.

He had his additional charges of attempting to have sex with a corpse and dishonest misappropriation of property from a dead person withdrawn by the prosecution.

Boh had strangled nurse Zhang Huaxiang, 28, with a towel on 21 March 2016 after hearing that she had been intimate with her ex-boyfriend. After Zhang died, Boh tried unsuccessfully to have sex with her corpse before attempting to stuff her body into a suitcase but failed to do so as the body had stiffened up.

Delivering the verdict, Justice Pang Khang Chau said the defence had failed to prove provocation and diminished responsibility, as argued by Boh’s lawyers Eugene Thuraisingam and Chooi Jing Yen. The lawyers have appealed against Boh’s conviction and sentence.

The prosecution had argued for a sentence of life imprisonment. Deputy Public Prosecutors Wong Kok Weng and Jason Chua said that the evidence from the trial showed that Boh and Zhang were “purely platonic friends” though Boh claimed otherwise.

The defence had applied for Boh to be tried under a charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, relying on the argument that Boh had acted without self-control due to his state of mind after Zhang revealed being intimate with her ex-boyfriend.

But the defence argued that Boh was hurt and in a daze.

“The accused further said that right before the offence he was ‘struggling inside’ and ‘couldn’t accept’, the words that constituted the provocation. The descriptions of ‘fire’, ‘impulsivity’, ‘sweating’, ‘struggle’, and an inability to accept what he had just heard strongly suggest the accused had lost his self-control at the time of the fatal incident,” said the defence.

The prosecution, however, rejected this defence, arguing that state of mind by itself did not prove that Boh was deprived of self-control. His state of mind could be consistent with a controlled act that was performed in anger, pointed out the prosecution.

Boh’s testimony also suggested that he was in control. He had stated during the trial that he could have controlled himself if he wanted to. He also testified that he could have stopped himself from strangling Zhang.

“However, because these answers were clearly adverse to the defence’s case, (the) defence counsel persisted in asking the accused numerous times whether he was able to control himself. It was only after the accused was allowed to mull over this question over the lunch break that that he changed his evidence and claimed that he could not control himself,” noted the prosecution in its documents.

Unreciprocated feelings

Boh and Zhang got to know each other in 2011 or 2012 when they worked as servers at the staff cafeteria in Marina Bay Sands. Zhang worked there part-time while studying for her nursing course at Nanyang Polytechnic. She later joined the National University Hospital in 2013 after she graduated.

Over time, the two went shopping and for meals together. Boh bought Zhang gifts and regarded her as his girlfriend although the two were never physically intimate.

However, Zhang did not reciprocate Boh’s feelings, according to the prosecution. In early March 2016, he felt that she was distancing herself from him and grew suspicious of her behaviour.

He went to the HDB block opposite her flat to spy on her on four to five occasions and spotted her leaving her block with a man on 18 March. He felt jealous and unhappy, as he believed that Zhang was “cheating” on him.

He arranged to have a steamboat lunch with Zhang at his rented flat in Circuit Road three days later. On 21 March 2016, Zhang arrived at about 1pm and they ate and chatted. Later, as Zhang combed her hair in front of the mirror in Boh’s bedroom, he initiated sex but she rejected him.

Boh then hugged Zhang from behind and, pushed her to his bed and climbed on top of her. He tried to kiss her but she warned him that she would bite his tongue off. She also threatened to shout for help. After a struggle, both sat on the edge of the bed in silence.

However, Boh forced himself on her again 10 minutes later. He molested her and dragged her back by her neck when she tried to leave the room. He let go of her when she said she was out of breath and saw that she was trembling.

Boh then asked Zhang about the man he had seen her with on 18 March. She said she had met him at the casino and they had gone out on four to five occasions.

When Boh asked Zhang about her ex-boyfriend in China, she said it was normal for her to be intimate with the latter.

Angered by what he heard, Boh took a bath towel and strangled her from behind for about two minutes till she died. He then placed her body on his bed. Boh took photos of the body and tried to violate it but failed to get an erection. He stole her valuables and prepared to flee Singapore.

He later bought a luggage and tried to stuff Zhang’s body into it as he planned to discard it somewhere in the Sembawang area. He failed as rigor mortis had set into it and spent the night sleeping beside the corpse on his bed.

The next morning, he dressed Zhang, covered her with a blanket, and told her to rest in peace. He then went to meet a friend for breakfast, leaving the air conditioner in his bedroom switched on in an attempt to prevent her body from decomposing.

After running some errands. Boh kissed Zhang on the forehead and left the flat at about 11.15am with the air conditioner and lights in his bedroom still on.

Boh left for Woodlands Checkpoint and made his way to his sister’s home in Malacca. He told his sister that he had killed someone in Singapore and that Zhang’s body was still in his bedroom.

Boh’s landlord came by the flat at night that day. He observed a figure lying in Boh’s bed and assumed that it was Zhang sleeping.

The landlord then went out for dinner and returned almost an hour later. When he didn’t get a response after calling out to Zhang, he pulled away the blanket to find her darkened face.

He immediately called the police. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. Boh was arrested by Malaysian police on 4 April while he was having dinner at a restaurant. He was brought back to Singapore the next day.

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