The alleged accused of Gardens by the Bay murder was taken to the court on the first day of his trial, which took place on Tuesday, March 12. The 50-year-old man, who is the alleged murderer of his girlfriend, made a strong impression when he met with the victim in 2015, the court heard.
As per the court documents, the accused, Leslie Khoo Kwee Hock asked the senior engineer Cui Yajie to be his girlfriend and the victim agreed within a month. One of the victim's colleagues, who was presented at the court a witness, revealed how the couple's relationship started and later soured.
It should be noted that as per the reports the accused strangled Cui to death in his car on July 12, 2016, after she threated to expose his lies.
Wu Wenjuan, who is a close friend and a compatriot of the victim told the court that Cui met the accused in 2015, on the day she went to meet her former boyfriend to patch up. When her ex-boyfriend refused to see her, Cui started to cry out loud outside the condominium. Meanwhile, Khoo walked out from another unit and asked her what was the issue but Cui did not reply elaborately.
Wu also stated that during that incident Khoo told the security guard, who appeared on the scene, that Cui was his friend, sparing her from being chased away,
However, later Khoo drove the victim to her home and while driving, he consoled Cui by saying that it was her boyfriend's loss not to value her and also asked her to be his girlfriend. After almost one month, Cui agreed to start a new relationship with Khoo.
When Cui told about Khoo to Wu, she warned her friend against going out with an unknown man who would ask a stranger to be his girlfriend.
However, Cui and Wu later found out that Khoo was not single, as they found an online article, written on him and his wife, as well as a photo where the accused was wearing a wedding ring. But, Khoo told Cui that he had been divorced for three years.
The court also came to know that since the accused was spending weekends in church with his former wife and son, Cui tried to get pregnant to spend more time with Khoo. But, later it was revealed that the victim was just like Khoo's other mistresses.
When Khoo was arrested, those women, who were involved with the accused in romantic relations, came forward to report that he had cheated them of their money. One of them also stated that after she got into a relationship with Khoo in October 2014, the accused told her that he was single and lived in Sentosa. She also borrowed $30,000 from her younger siblings to invest in Khoo's laundry business.
Section 300 of the Singapore penal code includes some subdivisions of this law to simplify the cause punishment procedure and these are-
S300(a)
There are three parts to this subsection:
- The accused must have intended to commit the act;
- The accused must have intended for that act to cause death;
- The act must have been the cause of death.
S300(b)
There are three parts to this section
- Intention of causing bodily injury;
- Knowledge that such bodily injury is likely to cause the death of the victim;
- Victim dies as a result of that bodily injury.
S300(c)
There are three parts to this subsection:
- Intention to cause bodily injury;
- Such injury is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death;
- The bodily injury caused death.
S300(d)
There are four parts to this subsection:
- Knowledge that act the offender intends to commit is so imminently dangerous that;
- Act must in all probability cause death; or
- cause such a bodily injury as is likely to cause death;
- without excuse for incurring such risk of causing death.
If a person found guilty under section 300(a), then he or she will be punished with the mandatory death penalty. Convicts under section 300(b), (c) and (d) will face a death penalty or life imprisonment, including canning if not punished with death.
