Vietnamese woman gets life sentence for stabbing boyfriend to death in Singapore

Nguyen Ngoc Giau, a Vietnamese national and Singapore permanent resident, stabbed Cho Wang Keung outside his apartment on Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 at around 1 a.m. on July 15, 2021, the court heard.

According to police records, Giau had moved into Cho's apartment in July 2020 as a tenant, before sharing the bedroom with him three months later, The Straits Times reported.

Their conflict began on the night of July 12, 2021, when Cho invited friends over for drinks. Giau became angry after seeing a female beer promoter sit on Cho's lap.

On July 14, Giau called Cho multiple times and texted him, accusing him of visiting the bar where the beer promoter worked. She confronted him later in the corridor outside his apartment when he returned home just past midnight with Tan Cheng Mun, another tenant who lived in a separate room.

She filmed the confrontation on her phone, accusing Cho of where he had been drinking, pulling him by his shirt collar, according to The Straits Times.

Cho asked Tan to call the police.

Giau then retrieved a knife from inside the apartment and stabbed Cho multiple times. When she noticed Tan photographing the assault, she turned to him, causing Tan to flee down the stairs.

When the police arrived, they found Giau sitting in the corridor, Cho lying on top of her. Both had multiple stab wounds, which were all caused by Giau according to the prosecution. Cho was pronounced dead at approximately 7:15 a.m.

During the trial, which began on April 8, Giau claimed that the stabbing was a regrettable result of an "unhealthy relationship, plagued by quarrels and fights," as reported by Channel News Asia.

Giau testified that she had been drinking beer all day on July 14, 2021. The defense argued that Giau was too intoxicated to have intended to kill Cho and that his death resulted from a sudden altercation, CNA reported.

Judge Dedar Singh Gill dismissed this defense, stating that the level of intoxication was not sufficient to prevent her from forming the intention to inflict fatal wounds.

Both Giau and Cho were married to different spouses.