A 30-year-old man refused to sleep with his friend, who was HIV positive, and stabbed him after the latter wanted to end their friendship.
He pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a weapon, and multiple offenses relating to drugs.
He was sentenced on 16 December to 9 years imprisonment, 9 strokes of the cane as well as a fine of $3,600.
What happened?
The two men lived together in a rented condominium unit from May 2018.
On 17 August 2018, the accused returned home with another man, and the next night, he got into an argument with the 44-year-old victim over text messages.
The victim had wanted to end their friendship and left the home, before returning at about 11 pm later that night.
When the victim arrived home, he was confronted by the accused at the door, who placed a knife (a parang to be exact) on the left side of his neck.
The two then had an argument about the victim’s HIV status, with the victim being unhappy that the accused refused to sleep with him.
The two then calmed down after about 10 minutes before the victim went into a bedroom and fell asleep.
The victim then woke up at 4 am and noticed that his wallet, NRIC as well as his laptop were missing – he couldn’t open the door of the bedroom and started panicking, kicking the door while screaming the accused’s name.
The victim then accused the assailant of locking the door.
The accused then opened the door and stabbed the victim in the abdomen, and the victim then asked him to call for an ambulance, which he did.
After calling the ambulance, the accused then left the unit with the knife.
The victim suffered penetrating injuries and had to have a small part of his small bowel surgically removed.