Student nurse testifies spurned suitor tried to kill her
TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — Pinned down by her suitor who was repeatedly stabbing and slashing her, she heard him say, “if I can’t have you, no man should have you”.
The alleged victim of healthcare assistant Varadharajan Mahadevan Mahadevan recounted this as she took the stand for the first time yesterday, where a doctor also described the severity of the injuries she sustained.
The victim, who cannot be named to protect her identity, lost the use of her left facial muscle after the attack, but she could well have suffered a stroke, or worse, died, if the cut had pierced throught her jawbone, said Associate Professor Lim Thiam Chye, who is the head of plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery division at the National University Hospital (NUH).
Varadharajan, 33, is accused of attempted murder on the nursing student at the void deck of her block on Dec 20, 2013, after she had rejected his advances.
She sustained multiple shoulder and back wounds with spinal penetrating injuries, and almost had her left thumb severed. A cut, measuring 20cm long and 5cm wide, extending from her ear to neck, could have severed the artery pumping blood to the brain, if it had pierced through her jawbone, causing her to suffer a stroke, or worse, die instantly, said Dr Lim. Rather, it damaged her facial nerve, resulting in the victim, now 23, being unable to lift her eyebrows, close her eyes completely, or form a smile on the left side. While she has since regained some function of her facial nerve, it will take “many years” of physiotherapy before she recovers full function, added Dr Lim.
The court was told that Varadharajan and the victim got acquainted in February that year when she was attached to NUH, where he worked.
They became close but the relationship soured some time in September after she decided to “stop playing along” with Varadharajan.
“He could not accept that I told him it was a joke,” she testified, adding that she told Varadharajan she was dating someone else.
After that, Varadharajan harassed her through calls and messages, going as far as making 30 to 40 calls on one of the days, she said.
In one of the WhatsApp messages he sent, Varadharajan wrote: “Now you going to suffer.”
Between October and November, Varadharajan also went to her house twice, shouting vulgarities and banging on the doors in a drunken state.
On Dec 19, he did it again but was persuaded to leave by the victim’s friend.
The following day, at about 8.30am, the victim was allegedly grabbed from behind as she exited the lift on her way to school.
She said she panicked after seeing him wielding a knife and declined to follow him for a talk. As she turned to leave, she said she was stabbed by Varadharajan in the back, then was spun around and knifed in the abdomen.
The pain forced her to fall on her back but Varadharajan allegedly sat on her and continued stabbing away, despite her attempts to hold on to the knife. “I lost strength because my hands and shoulders were bleeding. He then attacked my neck and then he said ‘die’ in Tamil. Then he said, ‘if I can’t have you, no man should have you’,” she said.
Asked by the defence if she had agreed to marry Varadharajan, she said she could not recall, but was forced to admit it after a 13-second phone conversation she had had with the accused was played.
Tearing up as she recounted the numerous treatments she had to undergo after the attack, the victim said her grades suffered and her parents sold the flat because it was a reminder of the incident.
“I went through a lot, a lot of pain,” she said. “Being a nurse, I have to tie up my hair. Everyday, patients ask me, ‘what happened to your neck’. These kind of questions made me remember what happened, which was very, very painful and traumatising.”
The trial continues today.
