Circuit Road murder trial: Accused says he loved NUH nurse, unintentionally killed her in fit of rage
SINGAPORE — A cafeteria worker on trial for strangling a nurse with a towel till she died told the High Court on Tuesday (8 October) that he loved her but killed her on impulse in a fit of jealous rage.
Boh Soon Ho, now 51, also claimed that he simply wanted to scare 28-year-old Zhang Huaxiang when he looped a towel around her neck after hearing about two other men in her life, including her ex-boyfriend with whom she said she had been physically intimate.
“It was very sudden. It was as if the fire reached my head. I felt very angry,” he told the court via a Mandarin interpreter as he took the stand for the first time.
“Everything happened in a flash,” he added.
Boh said that he regarded Zhang as his girlfriend, and that they were never physically intimate.
Boh, a permanent resident from Malaysia, faces the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted of his charge of causing sufficient bodily injury to Zhang such that it was likely to cause her death on 21 March 2016.
Most of the prosecution’s claims concerning the alleged murder are undisputed by Boh. However, he disputes having the intention to cause death.
Besides the capital charge, Boh also faces one count each of attempted sex with a corpse and dishonest misappropriation of property from a dead person. The maximum penalty for these crimes are up to five years’ jail and a fine, and up to three years’ jail and a fine, respectively.
Regarded victim as girlfriend
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 Resort.
Zhang worked there part-time while studying for her nursing course at Nanyang Polytechnic. She had reportedly received a scholarship to study nursing in Singapore in 2009, and joined the National University Hospital in 2013 after she graduated.
Boh told the court that they grew closer over time. He said they would go out two to three times a week, and he would pay for her food, drinks, groceries and even clothes.
He claimed that when they went to the cinema, she would feed him popcorn. She also fed him food when they went out, he said. And she even consulted him when selecting lingerie, although she didn’t try them on in front of him, the court heard.
“I liked her, loved her and was happy with her,” he said.
Although he never explicitly asked her to be his girlfriend, he regarded her as such. Nonetheless, they had never kissed nor held hands save for one occasion while crossing the road. He was embarrassed to hold her hand and didn’t think about it, he said.
After about three to four years of going out, and about a year after he considered her as his girlfriend, Boh said he asked Zhang to marry him. “I liked her, loved her and wanted to protect her,” he said, when asked why he did so by defence lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam.
Zhang didn’t reply.
According to the prosecution, Zhang didn’t reciprocate Boh’s feelings. In early March 2016, feeling that she was distancing herself from him and also suspicious of her behaviour, he went to the HDB block opposite her flat to spy on her on four to five occasions.
On 18 March, Boh saw Zhang leaving her block with a man in a taxi. He told the court that he felt angry.
Lost control of himself
Three days later, Boh and Zhang met for a steamboat lunch at his rented flat in Circuit Road.
Boh said Zhang asked for $1,000 to gamble. When he said he didn’t have the money, she called him “useless”.
Later, Zhang went to his bedroom to put on makeup. There, he asked her to have sex and groped her, but was rebuffed. Feeling bad for hurting her feelings and forcing himself onto her, Boh said he then told Zhang to go home. But she didn’t.
He wrapped his arm around her neck, letting go only when she said she was out of breath.
Boh then asked Zhang about the man he had seen three days earlier. She replied that they had met at the casino and had gone out several times.
“She said ‘I can go out with you but I cannot go out with him?’,” Boh told the court.
Boh then asked Zhang about another man whose text messages he had seen in her phone. “She said it was her boyfriend from China and it was normal for them to kiss and get intimate sometimes.”
He understood it to mean that they had sex, he told the court. “I was very very angry. I was perspiring and shaking. I took a towel to wipe the sweat,” he said, adding that he then strangled her on impulse.
“It was very sudden. It was as if the fire reached my head. I felt very angry,” Boh said. “I did not think too much. I only wanted to scare her,” he added.
He looped the towel around her neck and only let go when she stopped breathing, Boh said. “Everything happened in a flash,” he added.
Asked by his lawyer how he felt when he held the towel around Zhang’s neck, Boh said he felt pain and was very sad.
“I did so many things for her but I didn’t expect her to treat me this way,” he said. “For many years, I would buy her things and we would eat together and I would give her money to gamble, but then two men came into the picture and I couldn’t accept it,” he added.
Boh fled across the Causeway the next day. He told the court that he tried to commit suicide by jumping into a river in Malaysia, but gave up because the river was too smelly.
The trial continues with Boh on the stand on Wednesday.
Related story:
Circuit Road murder: Man allegedly strangled NUH nurse to death, tried to have sex with corpse
