86-year-old Pak Kian Huat was sentenced yesterday (22 May) to 15 years imprisonment for hacking his 79-year-old partner Lim Soi Moy to death with a chopper, according to Channel NewsAsia.
He was originally charged with murder but it was then reduced to culpable homicide, for the killing of Lim in their flat at Block 191 Toa Payoh Lorong 4, back on 1 September 2019.
Wanted the death sentence
Pak had told his lawyer that he wanted the death sentence during a trial last year.
Pak was then asked by the court for clarification, and he explained that the sentence of 7 years that his lawyer was seeking was too long, and wanted a jail term of up to 5 years instead – while the prosecution was seeking imprisonment of 15 to 18 years.
Pak also challenged the claims that there were 54 wounds on the victim’s body, and was asked by the court if he had counted; to which he said he didn’t but that he “couldn’t have hacked (the victim) so many times”.
Justice Aedit Abdullah then told him off, saying “You are not in a coffee shop, you are in a courtroom. You will behave with the proper decorum”.
Background
Pak and the victim first met in the 1950s and got into a relationship after a decade because the victim’s mother disapproved of their relationship.
They didn’t get married, but lived together and had 4 children who are in their 50s now.
The two lived in a 4-room flat from 2004 onwards, of which there were three bedrooms, with two of them being bigger in size.
Of the two bigger-sized bedrooms, the victim took one of the rooms, while the other room was for their elder son and elder daughter who are based overseas and for when they returned to Singapore.
The smaller room was taken by Pak, but he slept in the larger room whenever his children were overseas and not around.
Pak complained to his younger son on 26 August 2019, about the victim not letting him move into the larger room that was reserved for their elder children.
They later came to an agreement that Pak was allowed to stay in the room but has to move back to his room before 1 September 2019 when the elder son returns to Singapore.
The victim later allegedly rejected Pak’s request to continue living in the larger room after their elder son returned.
Pak then took a chopper from the kitchen in the early hours of 1 September and attacked Lim, hacking her to death.
“I am glad I killed her”
Following the attack, Pak called his son and told him that he had killed Lim and told him to call the police, and when officers arrived, Pak told them what he had done.
He told the officers that he was “glad” that he was able to kill Lim, who was found with 54 wounds on her body, including 31 on her face and head; he added that he “almost failed to kill her”.
The judge also pointed out that Pak didn’t show any remorse even after the police arrived, and that he only stopped assaulting Lim after she couldn’t speak anymore.