The man who was accused of killing his former girlfriend in 2015 pleaded guilty on Tuesday, October 17 to a reduced charge. His former flame was a flight attendant whom he had mercilessly killed.
As per reports by Channel NewsAsia, the charges on the man has been reduced to homicide. He was previously charged with murder. The 28-year-old Neo Chun Zheng might face life imprisonment and caning or up to 20 years in jail with caning or a lump some fine.
He had stabbed the 23-year-old Soh Yuan Lin in the neck on November 26. The gruesome incident was the result of a heated argument outside Neo's flat in Boon Lay Drive.
The couple first met each other while working in the same department at Marina Bay Sands in April 2014. They started dating in the month of September of the same year. Following reports, Soh wanted to keep the relationship clandestine to which Neo had agreed. Apparently, they shared an intimate bond.
Things turned topsy-turvy when Neo found out that his girlfriend was cheating on him with another guy in March 2015 which led to the heated conversation thus, finally leading to Soh's death. Neo accessed her emails and WhatsApp messages without notifying her and forwarded all the information on the same from Soh's phone to himself along with few compromising photos of the air hostess.
Neo complicated the situation further by showing the pictures to his colleagues at MBS and even threatened to circulate them if Soh cheats again.
Neo and Soh eventually broke up as for Soh, it was a complex relationship, with her companion being overly possessive. Neo's over possessiveness went on to become troublesome for Soh's sanity as even after breaking up Neo failed to come to terms with reality.
Apparently, Soh's trip to Bangkok with another guy angered him. Neo told his colleagues that he wanted her to die "an ugly death" in Mandarin. Neo failed to let go of the fact that her former air stewardess girlfriend was dating other guys, although he was asked to remain single.
Between November 25 and 26 things took a violent turn when Soh, after having missed several calls from Neo, accepted his offer to buy dinner for him and delivered to his doorstep. It was then that the brawl began. Despite Neo's mother warning him to let go of her, Neo violently snatched Soh's phone and hid it under a loaf of bread in his home. Soh threatened to call the police and Neo's mother's cries too went unnoticed. He eventually stabbed the air hostess in the neck with a 9cm long knife which resulted in a wound of about 3.4 cm long.
Neo surrendered to the police and confessed his crime. Soh was proclaimed dead at the hospital. The psychiatric report which was presented by the state counsel in 2015 declared that Neo did not have any mental disorder when he committed the crime.
Neo's lawyer, however, states that he had mental disorder when he committed the crime, as per their reports of a separate psychiatric assessment. The prosecution will prepare another report and results of the same shall be revealed soon.
