Maid who stabbed employer’s mother-in-law 26 times has murder charge reduced on appeal

A domestic worker who was given life imprisonment in 2023 for murdering her employer’s mother-in-law had the charge reduced to culpable homicide on May 14 after her lawyers argued at her appeal that she had been provoked.

Zin Mar Nwe, 24, had stabbed the victim 26 times on June 25, 2018, after the 70-year-old woman threatened to send her back to the agent.

Lawyer Josephus Tan said the triggering statement amounted to grave and sudden provocation, which caused the Myanmar national, who was then 17 years old, to lose self-control.

Mr Tan argued that to her mind, the statement represented a real possibility that she would be sent back to her home country because it was the third time within five months she had changed employers.

He said the threat was made against a backdrop of “a period in which the deceased had scolded, hit and hurt the accused”. 

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan Gohulabalan argued that there was no evidence to support a finding the maid had been physically abused, aside from her self-reported claims.

The prosecutor argued that the victim’s act of telling the maid she would be sent back to the agent did not meet the threshold of graveness.

The Court of Appeal, comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Tay Yong Kwang and Justice See Kee Oon, allowed the appeal to amend the charge.

Giving brief reasons for the decision, Chief Justice Menon noted that Zin Mar Nwe was young and feared being sent back to her home country in debt.

A reasonable person in the same situation would have been similarly provoked, he said.

The court will issue detailed reasons in due course.

The case was adjourned for parties to prepare sentencing arguments.

A person convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder can be jailed for life or for up to 20 years.

The victim and her family members cannot be named owing to a gag order as one of the witnesses in the trial was below the age of 18.

Mr Tan, who argued the appeal with Mr Cory Wong, acted for Zin Mar Nwe under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme.

She came to Singapore on Jan 5, 2018.

Her passport falsely stated that she was 23 years old, which was the minimum age for working as a domestic worker in Singapore.

She started working for her third employer, Mr S, on May 10, 2018.

About two weeks later, the family of four was joined by the man’s mother-in-law, who came from India for a one-month stay.

On June 25 that year, the two women were alone in the flat when the maid grabbed a knife from the kitchen and repeatedly stabbed the victim.

The maid said the stabbing was triggered by the woman’s threat to send her back to the agent, which would result in her being sent home in debt.

After the stabbing, the maid left the flat with some cash and went to her agency to ask for her passport. She left the place when she heard that the staff were about to call her employer.

She roamed around for five hours before returning to the agency, where she was arrested.

She initially denied stabbing the victim and pinned the blame on two men.

During her High Court trial, her previous lawyers relied on another partial defence – that she was suffering from a mental condition that diminished her responsibility for her actions.

This defence was rejected by the trial judge.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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