Gardens by the Bay killer found guilty of murdering engineer girlfriend

SINGAPORE — He strangled his lover to death in his BMW at a secluded spot at Gardens by the Bay East.

Then over the next three days, he burnt her body until nothing was left but some of her hair, a brassiere hook and bits of charred fabric from her dress.

On Thursday (July 18) Leslie Khoo Kwee Hock was found guilty in the High Court of murdering Chinese engineer Cui Yajie, 31.

Sentencing was adjourned to a later date yet to be fixed.

Judicial Commissioner Audrey Lim, who delivered her brief oral decision, said she found that Khoo knew compressing Cui’s neck with great force “would likely cause her death and it was very dangerous”. 

He also had the motive to kill her — to rid himself of financial pressure and the threat she posed to him, the judge added.

“The accused acted in a cruel and unusual manner when he attacked her,” she said.

His lawyers had argued that his case should be considered an exception to murder on the basis of “diminished responsibility”, as his private psychiatrist had diagnosed him with intermittent explosive disorder at the time of the offence.

The mental disorder would have led to sudden outbursts that caused him to lose control of his actions.

During the trial, which spanned 11 days in March, Khoo, 51, told the court that he was in a dazed and confused state when he strangled Cui on July 12, 2016.

His lawyers also argued that Khoo had faced a “grave and sudden provocation” from his lover, which had triggered a “sudden fight” — two other reasons for the exception to murder. 

These could have led to a conviction for culpable homicide, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Murder carries either the death penalty or a life sentence.

The judge rejected his defences on Thursday, saying that she was satisfied that Khoo had not lost control when he reached for Cui’s neck, and that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that he had had the intention to murder her.

While she accepted that Khoo had “developed a lifetime diagnosis of intermittent explosive disorder around 2002”, she was not satisfied that the disorder had manifested on that day and substantially impaired his judgment.

Khoo had told his psychiatrist that on the day of the murder, he had pleaded with Cui not to go to his workplace to expose his affair with her, and even kowtowed and begged her. 

But, he said, she had scolded and cursed him, and the next thing he knew his hand was on her neck.

REPEATEDLY TOLD TALL TALES

At the time of the murder, Cui was a senior engineer with semiconductor firm MediaTek Singapore. The pair had met sometime in 2015.

Khoo, who had previously served a 16-month jail term starting in 2011 for criminal breach of trust, lied to Cui throughout the course of their relationship. 

Among the lies that he fed her was that he was single. He was in fact married with a son, who is now 12 years old.

He was a retail outlet manager for laundry company Dryclyn Express, but told her that he was the owner of the firm. 

He also tricked her into giving him S$20,000, which he claimed would go towards “gold investments”.

He later returned Cui S$10,000 in early July 2016, using money he had received from another woman he was intimate with. 

He admitted during the trial to having had at least four extramarital affairs, but insisted to the court that Cui was merely “a good friend” and that he did not know that she harboured romantic feelings for him. 

THE DAY OF THE MURDER

On the morning of the killing, Cui threatened to go to Khoo’s workplace in Tuas to speak to his bosses. Khoo tried to dissuade her, but she was determined.

He decided to intercept her at Joo Koon MRT Station, the station nearest to his workplace. There, he told her he would take her to see his supervisor and she boarded his car.

Instead, he drove her to Gardens by the Bay and strangled her as she sat in the front passenger seat, until she stopped moving.

He then bought charcoal and kerosene from two shops along Kranji Road and headed to Lim Chu Kang Lane 8, where he placed her body under a metal canopy and burnt it for the next three days.

During those three days, he would visit the site occasionally to feed more charcoal and kerosene to the fire. 

He also discarded her belongings in Orchid Country Club, but not before taking S$30 from her wallet and cutting up her credit cards.

It was only on the afternoon of July 14, 2016 — after Cui had not turned up for work for three days — that her worried colleagues made a police report about her disappearance, after calling her parents and visiting her flat.

The police later established that Khoo was the last person who had interacted with Cui. He was arrested on July 20, 2016.