A worker cleaning up bloodstains along the corridor of Block 562 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 on July 15, 2021. -- PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO FILE
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): A 43-year-old woman who is on trial for the murder of her boyfriend had a stormy relationship with the man, the High Court heard when she took the stand on April 17.
When asked by her lawyer how she got along with the victim, Nguyen Ngoc Giau, 43, said through a Vietnamese interpreter: “Every day go drink. Drink, then quarrel.”
Twice, the quarrels ended with her going to the hospital, she said. On one occasion, both were arrested for fighting at the void deck.
Giau is accused of fatally stabbing 51-year-old Cho Wang Keung at the fifth-floor common corridor of Block 562 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 at about 1am on July 15, 2021.
Cho was pronounced dead at about 7.15am that day in hospital.
Giau, a Singapore permanent resident from Vietnam, also suffered knife wounds during the incident. If convicted of the murder charge, she faces life imprisonment or the death penalty.
On April 17, Giau testified that she was raised by her grandmother in Vietnam after her parents split.
She came to Singapore in 2010 and worked at a KTV for two months, she said. That year, she married a Singaporean man, with whom she had two children.
Responding to questions from her lawyer, Favian Kang, Giau said she and her husband did not talk much and had occasional disputes.
“(The) two of us do not understand each other,” she said.
She said she was admitted to the Institute of Mental Health for attempting to hang herself because she was stressed over the marriage.
Giau is still married, but does not talk to her husband. She last visited her children in 2019, she said.
She was introduced to Mr Cho, whom she knew as Peter, by a mutual friend in 2020.
She rented a room in his three-room flat to “stay for a few months” during the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.
Giau, who ran a hair salon, said Cho’s wife was jealous of her, but his daughter liked her.
Cho’s other tenant, Tan Cheng Mun, had earlier testified that the man’s wife and daughter moved out in June 2020.
Giau said Cho’s two-year-old daughter had held their hands and told them to start a relationship.
She and Cho, a jewellery assembler, would quarrel about five times a week after they had drinks, she said.
Asked to recount the quarrels that turned physical, Giau said one fight started after they accused each other of having other romantic partners.
She also described a fight that started after she asked to break up with him, and he asked her to return the gifts he had given her.
She said Mr Tan pressed her down while Cho took a ring, watch and necklace from her.
The fight that led to the arrests came after she asked him to buy her an air ticket to Vietnam, and he replied he hoped her plane would fall into the sea.
Kang then took her through the events of the days leading up to the fatal stabbing.
She said that on July 12, 2021, she and Cho had a fight after she became unhappy with one of his female friends, who worked as a beer promoter.
Giau was recounting the events of July 13, 2021, when Justice Dedar Singh Gill asked Mr Kang how this was relevant.
The lawyer replied that the incident had started “two or three days before”.
Continuing her testimony, Giau said she drank beer and locked Mr Cho out of their bedroom.
The next day, July 14, she continued drinking, she said. Kang then played footage captured on July 14 and on July 15.
It came from CCTV cameras in the flat and at the minimart where she bought cans of beer, as well as a video she took on her phone as she confronted Cho in the corridor.
She said she could not remember doing what she did.
Kang also played six audio recordings retrieved from her phone, which Giau said she did not remember making.
“I don’t remember anything. I was drunk already,” she said.
Giau continues her testimony on April 22. -- The Straits Times/ANN
