SINGAPORE – A man who killed his wife in a jealous rage two years ago escaped the gallows when he was jailed nine years on Monday (April 11).
Truck driver Zheng Xianghua, 38, killed 37-year-old Wang Xueyan at a Tampines block on Dec 16, 2014, over his suspicions that Wang was having an affair with her supervisor.
He then went to a neighbouring block of flats where he slashed himself three times and contemplated taking his own life, before he was eventually coaxed down by police officers.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the couple, both Chinese nationals, had met in 2010 through Chinese social networking platform QQ, and were married in 2012.
At the time of the incident, the couple rented their own rooms in different locations, as Madam Wang was working in Woodlands while Zheng’s company was in Changi.
He suspected that his wife was having an affair after finding out that she had begun wearing make-up and receiving attention and complements from male colleagues at work, evening daily Lianhe Wanbao reported.
Acting on his suspicions, Zheng asked his wife’s roommate to spy on her. The roommate revealed that Madam Wang had secretly bought a mobile phone to contact her supervisor.
Aw Cheng Wei, The Straits Times, Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min
On the night of the incident, Madam Wang visited Zheng at his room in Tampines, and the couple had dinner together before having sex.
But a quarrel broke out soon after. Zheng was enraged when Madam Wang declined his move to embrace her, Shin Min Daily News reported. He then grabbed a knife he had bought two days earlier and used it to hit Madam Wang over the head before stabbing her repeatedly.
An autopsy report found that Madam Wang had 14 stab wounds on her abdomen and back, 13 of which had pierced her lungs.
On Monday, Zheng was sentenced after he pleaded guilty to the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. He had initially been charged with murder.
Lawyer Ng Shi Yang, who represented Zheng, had earlier asked the court to impose a sentence of not more than nine years jail, saying that Zheng did not intend to kill and had committed the crime “in the heat of the moment”, Lianhe Wanbao reported.
Psychiatric reports also showed that Zheng suffered from severe depression and pathological jealousy.
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