Man charged with homicide for slashing ex-girlfriend to death

SINGAPORE — Feeling betrayed after seeing her with another man, a mentally disturbed Chinese national fatally wounded his ex-girlfriend with over 190 lacerations and bruises, following an argument which turned violent.

Xiao Guiliang, 31, was sentenced by the High Court today (March 3) to 12 years in prison and six strokes of the cane for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Xiao had slashed his ex-girlfriend, Ms Zhang Jie, aged 24 at the time of her death, multiple times on her head, neck, chest and arms with a knife, on July 7, 2013 — after a confrontation about her having a new boyfriend soon after they had broken up, turned into a violent struggle.

The court heard that Ms Zhang had initially threatened Xiao with the knife out of fear that he would hurt her, and that he had wrest it from her hand during the struggle and slashed her with it.

The incident occurred at Blk 631 Jurong West Street where Xiao and Ms Zhang also used to live together.

The court heard that after seeing that she had stopped moving, Xiao tried to commit suicide by drinking insecticide.

Ms Zhang was found lying in a supine position, gasping for air and bleeding profusely from the neck. She was pronounced dead an hour later at the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

Investigations revealed that a few months prior to the incident, Ms Zhang had told Xiao that she was pregnant and had gotten an abortion in Singapore.

Psychiatric assessments found that Xiao suffers from a major depressive disorder with association psychotic features.

Xiao was charged on February 26, for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. His sentence will be backdated to the date of his arrest on July 2, 2013. For his offence, he faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, or caning, or both.