Defence: Victim's knife wounds were accidental

The lawyer defending a 25-year-old woman on trial for trying to murder her former girlfriend yesterday contended that the accused was actually trying to kill herself, but the younger woman was accidentally knifed in the struggle that ensued.

But Ms Ummul Qurratu 'Ain Abdul Rahman, 22, denied that Giselle Shi Jia Wei had expressed any intention to commit suicide.

Shi is accused of stabbing Ms Qurratu 'Ain twice in the chest before turning the knife on herself in a hotel room in Geylang on July 22, 2012.

One of the stabs fractured the victim's breastbone and punctured the wall of her heart.

The prosecution contends that Shi tried to murder her lover and then kill herself, after Ms Qurratu 'Ain spurned her requests to get back together.

But yesterday, on the second day of the trial, defence lawyer K. Jayakumar Naidu put it to Ms Qurratu 'Ain that the injuries she suffered were "accidental and not intentional". She disagreed.

The courtroom was cleared while hotel surveillance footage was played of the naked victim escaping the room. A married couple then took the stand to recount how the victim had approached them in the lift lobby on the same floor. Ms Nur Farizah Abdul Aziz told the court the woman was covered in dried blood and seemed weak.

"She told me that someone had tried to kill her," said Ms Farizah. When she asked if the culprit was her boyfriend, the victim said it was her "friend".

Ms Farizah and her husband found towels to cover the victim, helped her to the ground-floor lobby and called the police. Paramedic Low Pey Yun, who attended to Shi, said there was blood on the bed and the floor of the room. Shi, who was on the bed, had a 2cm slash wound on her chest but there were no signs of a struggle, said the paramedic.

The trial continues. Shi faces a life term or up to 20 years' jail if convicted of attempted murder.

selinal@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Sep 26, 2014.
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