Life term for man who murdered Singaporean woman in Brisbane: Reports

BRISBANE — An Australian court on Friday (Dec 14) sentenced a man to life in prison for the murder of a Singaporean woman at a Brisbane hotel in 2014.

According to a report by ABC News, Senthill Kumar Arumugam, 36, pleaded guilty in the Queensland Supreme Court to murdering Meena Narayanan.

"The frenzied attack was ferocious. Your intent in taking the life of the deceased involved brutality beyond comprehension," judge David Boddice said, according to 9News.

The Brisbane Times said Ms Narayanan had been pursuing a masters course at the Queensland University of Technology. The Singaporean student previously attended Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore.

The prosecution said that he met her through an arranged marriage website in 2013, but her family has denied there was an arranged marriage in earlier reports.

"The deceased expressed some reservations about the relationship and the evidence supports that she commenced another relationship with another man in Australia," the court heard.

Arumugam, an Indian national who was based in South Africa, allegedly told an associate that he would kill himself if Ms Narayanan did not marry him, the report added.

Arumugam travelled to Australia to confront Ms Narayanan and attacked her in a hotel room following an argument.

Ms Narayanan sustained injuries to her back, arms, hands, legs, chest and abdomen, 9News Australia reported.

After killing Ms Narayanan, Arumugam stabbed himself several times in the abdomen and called for help, claiming that they had attempted a suicide pact.

The court found Ms Narayanan’s injuries to be inconsistent with Arumugam’s claims.

The court also heard that Arumugam had told others that if he “could not have (her), nobody else will”, the report added.

The case had been delayed for years because Arumugam had extensive mental health treatment, ABC reported.

Arumugam will be eligible for release after serving 20 years of his sentence. CHANNEL NEWSASIA

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