A 49-year-old Singaporean who needed money urgently to pay for a new flat his wife had bought in Johor allegedly killed the mother of his former employer when she tried to stop him from taking her jewellery worth about $10,000.

On the first day of his trial for culpable homicide with intention to cause death, prosecutors allege that P. Mageswaran had pressed a pillow over Kanne Lactmy’s face with one hand, and choked her with his other hand on the morning of Dec 9, 2013.

An autopsy found that the 62-year-old grandmother died from manual strangulation.

The High Court heard Mageswaran used to work for Madam Lactmy’s son and joined their family gatherings.

Opening the prosecution’s case, Deputy Public Prosecutor Wong Kok Weng said Mageswaran had that morning asked his wife for documents for the new flat purchase, lying that he wanted to use them to convince his employer to lend him money to pay the RM5,000 (S$1,600) deposit.

He then made his way across the Causeway from his rented Johor flat but instead of going to work, he went to Madam Lactmy’s flat at Yishun Street 81.

Surveillance footage at the void deck of her block captured him arriving at about 8.35am.

Mageswaran claimed that he asked to borrow $2,000 to $3,000 from her but she replied that she did not have so much money, said the DPP.

Read also: Man and Singaporean son acquitted of killing armed robber in Malaysia

While Madam Lactmy went to brush her teeth in the kitchen toilet, he searched the three bedrooms looking for valuables to steal.

In the master bedroom, he found a box containing jewellery and several pawn shop tickets.

At this point, the woman entered the room and saw him holding the box. She demanded that he return the box of jewellery but Mageswaran pleaded with her to let him take it.

When she said she would be calling her son, he pushed her onto the floor.

He choked and smothered her until she stopped struggling.

He left the flat with the box of jewellery, raising the hood of his jacket to cover his head before heading down the stairs to the void deck.

He was caught on surveillance footage using his hands to shield his face as he walked down the stairs at about 9.35am.

Magesawaran later threw away his jacket and returned to his home in Johor. He pawned the stolen jewellery for RM26,300 and threw away the pawn tickets.

Shortly past noon, a neighbour’s domestic worker found Madam Lactmy lying on the bedroom floor. Paramedics found she had no pulse. She was pronounced dead in hospital at 1.30pm.

If convicted of culpable homicide, Mageswaran faces life imprisonment and caning, or up to 20 years’ jail, caning or a fine.

Read also: Robbery suspect in Philippines killed while sleeping with his 5-month old baby

selinal@sph.com.sg

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British celebrity chef and restaurateur Marco Pierre White will be opening a restaurant in Singapore next year.

Called The Old English House, it will be a “restaurant with rooms” in the Robertson Quay area, he told The Straits Times.

Targeted to open in June next year, it will comprise a Western restaurant serving what he calls “simple” dishes such as duck roasted on a spit with orange.

There will be guest rooms above the restaurant, he said.

Most of the dishes will be served in sharing platters instead of individual plates and prices will be kept reasonable, he added. There will be no service charge.

White, 55, owns several restaurants in London, including Kings Road Steakhouse & Grill, and a hotel called The Rudloe Arms in Bath, which is set in 6ha of wooded land with a farm attached.

He also appeared on the reality show MasterChef Australia in 2011, and has been a mentor on the programme for the last three years.

The chef is known for speaking his mind and has a house policy that forbids staff at his restaurants from asking customers how the food is.

His reason is that diners should not be patronised. The Singapore restaurant will have the same policy, he said.

Read also: “Food is now designed for looking, not eating”

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THE last and largest launch this year of new Housing Board flats kicked off yesterday with a total of 10,118 units and more than 4,100 people applying on Day One.

Analysts expect this launch to be very popular, given the attractive locations of some units.

Of 5,110 Build-To-Order (BTO) units, more than half are in the mature estates of Bedok, Bidadari – a new estate that is part of Toa Payoh – and Kallang/Whampoa. The remaining 2,194 units are in Punggol.

Also on offer are 5,008 balance flats – or flats not sold previously – ranging from two-room flexi units to even executive flats, which are no longer being built.

The preceding three BTO launches this year also included flats in mature estates such as Ang Mo Kio, Tampines and Bidadari. Yet, despite the greater supply, competition for units in mature estates is expected to remain high.

In a Facebook post yesterday, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said: “We are trying our best to provide more options for home buyers. But given limited land and the popularity of projects in these mature areas, we can expect application numbers to exceed the units available.”

He encouraged buyers in urgent need of flats to consider non-mature estates instead.

Applications for both BTO and balance flats are open until 11.59pm on Monday.

The next Build-to-Order launch will be in February 2017.

The non-mature estates of Punggol and Woodlands will offer about 1,770 and 170 flats respectively, while the mature estates of Clementi and Tampines will have 1,600 and 620 units up for grabs.

Yesterday’s star attractions were the four-room flats in the mature estates of Bidadari and Kallang/Whampoa.

As of 2pm yesterday, there were already 185 applicants vying for the 158 four-room units in Kallang Residences.

This rose to 271 by 5pm.

Four-roomers in Bidadari were also popular, with 481 applicants for 587 units as of 5pm.

The high demand is despite 5,008 flats being offered in a simultaneous Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercise.

These balance flats that were not sold in previous exercises are expected to siphon off only a little of the demand for BTO flats, said R’ST Research director Ong Kah Seng.

When the BTO exercise closes on Monday night, PropNex Realty key executive Lim Yong Hock expects four to eight applicants for each unit in mature estates, compared with one to three applicants for each unit in Punggol.

ERA Realty key executive Eugene Lim noted that the projects in the mature estates are close to existing or upcoming MRT stations. Regarding Kallang Residences, Mr Eugene Lim added: “Demand is expected to be overwhelming due to the city fringe location and proximity to the (Kallang) MRT station.

“Many applicants will likely try their luck for a unit as the potential for capital appreciation is very high.”

Starting prices for units in the mature towns, before grants, range from $135,000 for a two-room flexi flat in Bedok to $497,000 for a four-roomer in Kallang Residences and $503,000 for a Bedok five-roomer.

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A 65-YEAR-OLD Boon Lay resident hurt her leg on Nov 15 when the lift in her Boon Lay Housing Board block plunged unexpectedly from the third floor to the ground floor, then rose again to the second floor, Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao reported.

The lift – at Block 207, Boon Lay Place – is currently closed.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said, on Friday, it was alerted to an incident.

BCA engineers, representatives from the West Coast Town Council and the lift contractor visited the site to investigate.

“Based on BCA’s investigations, there was an electronic fault that caused the lift to initiate a safety stop between the second and first storey until the lift re-levelled at the second storey,” said a BCA spokesman.

The BCA has instructed the town council to work with its lift contractor to do the necessary checks and rectifications to ensure that the issue is resolved.

Patrick Tay, who is the Member of Parliament for the area, said he visited the resident at her home last Thursday after being informed of the incident by the town council that evening.

“In addition to current supervision, audits and checks of lifts in the constituency, I have requested the West Coast Town Council to conduct an additional round of checks of similar lifts across the constituency as a precautionary measure,” he added.

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