Maid who fatally stabbed elderly woman gets life sentence reduced to 17 years' jail on appeal
Zin Mar Nwe was 17 when she knifed the 70-year-old mother-in-law of her employer 26 times after being scolded, hit and told by the elderly woman that she would be sent back to her agent.
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SINGAPORE: A maid who was serving a life sentence for murder had her jail term reduced to 17 years on Tuesday (Aug 26) after a successful appeal.
Zin Mar Nwe, who was 17 at the time of the killing in 2018, earlier had her murder conviction reduced to one of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
In May this year, the Court of Appeal had allowed her partial defence on the grounds of grave and sudden provocation.
The maid, who is from Myanmar, stabbed her employer's 70-year-old mother-in-law in 2018 after the elderly woman threatened to send her back to her agent. This came after the mother-in-law had scolded, hit and hurt Zin Mar Nwe.
The victim was watching television when Zin Mar Nwe stabbed her 26 times until she stopped moving.
The maid then retrieved her belongings, washed the knife and changed before fleeing. She was arrested at her employment agency.
There is a gag order on disclosing the identities of the victim, her family members and the location of the incident.
Now aged 24, Zin Mar Nwe was initially found guilty of murder in 2023 after a trial.
The trial judge found that the stabbing happened after a period on Jun 25, 2018 when the victim had "scolded, hit and hurt" Zin Mar Nwe and said she would be sent back to her agent.
In May this year, a three-judge appeal panel of Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Tay Yong Kwang and See Kee Oon allowed Zin Mar Nwe's appeal against the murder conviction.
Grave and sudden provocation is one of the exceptions under which culpable homicide does not amount to murder.
The appeal court judges granted this partial defence, ruling that "a reasonable person situated as the accused person was could reasonably have been similarly provoked".
The judges noted Zin Mar Nwe's youth, the challenges she faced being in debt to her employment agent and her fear of being repatriated.
The maid arrived in Singapore on Jan 5, 2018. While her passport stated her age as 23, investigations later revealed she was 17.
After working for two other employers, she started working for the victim's family on May 10, 2018.
Zin Mar Nwe's appeal was fought by Mr Josephus Tan and Mr Cory Wong of Invictus Law under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme.
The lawyers asked for her sentence to be reduced to not more than 16 to 18 years' imprisonment.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Kumaresan Gohulabalan and Sean Teh sought 18 to 20 years' jail.
They argued the jail term should send a "robust signal" to "domestic helpers who resort to heinous violence against their employer or their families, rather than seek help from proper and legitimate channels".
The Court of Appeal said that life imprisonment was inappropriate for culpable homicide committed under grave and sudden provocation, unless the offender was a continuing threat to others' safety.
The judges found that Zin Mar Nwe did not present a continuing threat to public safety or risk of reoffending.
They also said the victim's provocation was sudden and grave enough that it threatened not only her employment and livelihood, but also the "inevitability" of being sent home in debt.
It was amplified by Zin Mar Nwe's youth, immaturity, financial vulnerability, troubled family circumstances and, to a certain extent, the physical abuse the victim inflicted, the judges said.
However, this was tempered by the fact that the provocation consisted of "a single verbal utterance".
Aggravating factors included the fact that the attack was brutal in nature, involved use of a weapon and was committed by a domestic helper in the household where she was employed.
But the judges did not accept the prosecution's point that Zin Mar Nwe had tried to hide the weapon or evade arrest.
While she washed the knife she used, she left it in the kitchen, did not interfere with the scene of the crime, and even returned to her maid agency a second time although she must have known she risked arrest, they said.
They noted that Zin Mar Nwe told police she had returned with the intention of confessing to what she had done, although fear kept her from doing so until a little later in the investigations.
For culpable homicide not amounting to murder, Zin Mar Nwe could have been sentenced to life imprisonment or up to 20 years in prison with a fine. As she is a woman, she cannot be caned.
