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Man sentenced to 18 years' jail for killing mother of former boss

Photo: Singapore Supreme Court building/Yahoo
Photo: Singapore Supreme Court building/Yahoo

A man who strangled and suffocated his former employer’s mother after robbing her of her jewellery was on Thursday (20 July) sentenced to 18 years’ jail by the High Court.

Singaporean P Mageswaran, 50, who was sentenced on one count of culpable homicide, has a string of more than six past offences, including theft, statutory rape, committing an obscene act in a public place and a series of robbery offences in 2007 where he had wielded choppers, knives and a parang.

Mageswaran was found guilty on 11 May this year by Judicial Commissioner (JC) Hoo Sheau Peng of killing Kanne Lactmy, 62, by strangling her after the elderly woman rejected his plea for money on 9 December 2013.

The High Court heard that Mageswaran went to Kanne’s flat in Yishun and asked her for a loan of $2,000 to $3,000. She rejected him, saying that she did not have enough money.

While Kanne went to the kitchen toilet to brush her teeth, Mageswaran walked around the flat to look for valuables to steal. He entered the master bedroom and forced open a locked wardrobe where he found a box of jewellery valued at about $10,000.

It was then that Kanne walked in on Mageswaran holding on to the box. She demanded that Mageswaran return her valuables but he refused and begged her to let him have the box.

After Kanne threatened to call her son, Mageswaran pushed her onto the ground. He then used a pillow to suffocate Kanne with one hand while strangling her with his other hand for some four minutes. He later released his hand on her neck but continued pressing the pillow on her face for another six or seven minutes until she stopped struggling.

Mageswaran pawned the jewellery in Johor for RM 26,300. He was caught at the Woodlands checkpoint when he returned to Singapore.

In sentencing Mageswaran, JC Hoo accepted the Mageswaran’s crime was not premeditated and that he had acted on the “spur of the moment”. Mageswaran had tried to steal valuables, was caught red-handed in the act and had acted to prevent the victim from shouting, said JC Hoo.

“In the words of Defence Counsel, this was ‘a case of robbery gone wrong’ – and I should add terribly and tragically wrong,” said JC Hoo. She added that though vicious, Mageswaran’s acts of strangulation and suffocation had no “added element of inhumanness” which would cause his case to be classed as one of the worst types of culpable homicide cases.

Another factor the JC took into consideration was the mental impairment Mageswaran was suffering from at the time of the offence.

She said, “I accept that the offence was committed on the spur of the moment, and that the mental impairments, including [Mageswaran’s] low IQ, affected his control over his conduct.

However, due to Mageswaran’s past offences, the JC said that “due weight” had to be given to his propensity to commit offences arising from his financial needs.

The prosecution, represented by Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Kok Weng, had pressed for life imprisonment, arguing that the case was “deserving” of the maximum sentence. “This case falls under one of the worst types of cases for [such an offence]. He had a calculated decision to kill [Kanne],” said the DPP.

Wong said that there was a degree of trust in Kanne and Mageswaran’s relationship as the deceased had opened up her home to him. “This is a case of cold blooded, intentional killing by [Mageswaran], when [he] could not obtain loan he wanted, he went on to kill [Kanne] in order to obtain and keep jewellery he the found in the room,” said the DPP.

The DPP submitted that Mageswaran was not suffering from any psychiatric disorder that was a mitigating factor at the time of the offence.

JC Hoo decided not to impose the six-month jail term the Prosecution had asked for in lieu of caning due to the already “stiff” sentence passed on Mageswaran.

Mageswaran’s lawyer Derek Kang disagreed that the case deserved a maximum sentence. The defence counsel had sought a 12-year jail term.

Kang said he could not see how Mageswaran’s case was one of the worst compared to a large number of in culpable homicide cases where the “level of brutality shown” was higher but the offenders were not sentenced to life imprisonment.

He added that his client had no proclivity towards violence and that this was his first offence involving actual violence.

Mageswaran’s jail sentence was backdated to 18 December 2013.

For culpable homicide, Mageswaran could have been jailed for life and caned.

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