Man who stabbed healthcare worker after being spurned jailed 14 years, caned

A man who viciously stabbed and slashed a woman over the end of their relationship was sentenced to 14 years jail and six strokes of the cane in the High Court on Monday (30 April).

In sentencing the 35-year-old Indian national on one charge of attempted murder, Justice Woo Bih Li said that he accepted that there was some relationship between the man and the then 20-year-old victim, who both worked in healthcare, “in which it could be said the woman led you on sometimes”.

“However the victim made it clear to you that she was breaking off the relationship sometime before your attack on her on 20 December 2013,” he said, adding that there was no provocation by the woman. He also found that the man, who waited for the woman at her flat’s void deck, had planned his attack to an extent.

Both the man and the victim’s identities are redacted due to a gag order.

The two first became acquainted at their workplace in February 2013. The man wooed the woman and believed that they were in a serious romantic relationship. The woman played along but she later apologised and revealed that it was a “joke”.

However, the man did not accept the rejection and visited the woman’s flat with a chain and a ring to propose marriage on 19 December 2013. He was rebuffed by the woman’s father, who called the police when the man began behaving aggressively.

The man later went home, hid a knife in a sock and waited for the woman at her flat’s void deck the following day. He confronted the woman and attacked her with the knife.

The woman’s screams attracted the attention of her parents, who rushed downstairs. Her father pushed the man off. The man tried to flee but was arrested after passersby managed to stop him.

The vicious assault left the woman with at least 20 wounds on five areas of her body, including her head, neck and chest. The woman now suffers from left facial nerve palsy – or a loss of facial movement due to nerve damage – and has difficulties smiling, talking and closing her left eye properly.

The man considered and treated the woman almost like his wife, said his lawyers, B Rengarajoo and Tan Heng Khim in mitigation documents.

“He had high hopes of going to India with the victim and marrying her with his mother’s blessing. A fact that is known to his mother, ” said the lawyers. “At that point of time, he was ignorant that the victim was ‘playing along’ with his feelings and emotions.”

Even after the woman said “it was a joke all along” and that she wanted to end the relationship, the man thought it was “part and parcel of the ups and downs of some sort of unique relationship between a romantic couple”, the defence said. It asked for not more than eight years’ jail for the man.

The prosecution, however, said that unrequited love was a “particularly galling” excuse for the attack. It sought a 14-year jail sentence and six strokes of the cane.

“No one is entitled to exact violence in order to seek redress for grievances, whether real or imagined,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Bhajanvir Singh.

He also cited the force of the “repeated and relentless strikes”, which caused the tip of the knife blade to bend when he missed a strike and the knife hit the floor. The man had stabbed and slashed the woman, and continued to strike her even after she had fallen on the ground.

He also prevented her from escaping by sitting on her and was so determined to kill her that he did not even stop when the woman’s father arrived at the scene, said the prosecution.

For attempting to murder the woman and causing hurt to her, the man could have been jailed up to 20 years, caned and/or fined.