A 32-year-old Singaporean woman was sentenced to 18 years in prison after she slashed her adoptive father 40 times to death with a cleaver over his decision to donate their public housing unit.
The defendant, Tan Qiu Yan, attacked the victim with a cleaver after he stepped out of the shower on November 3, 2022. She hacked at his head and neck repeatedly as the adoptive father tried to fight back by grabbing her hair and forcing her head down.
In the struggle, Tan continued slashing at him, resulting in his death. Court documents revealed that she struck him a total of 40 times.
Tan turned herself in after around nine hours.
Constant disputes leading to the homicide
Tan and her father had repeatedly quarreled over the right of ownership to their public housing flat in Sengkang after the passing of her adoptive mother in 2022, before which she was told to be inheriting the flat.
The quarrels regarding the property started as early as the mother’s funeral wake. On one occasion, an altercation escalated to the point where her father angrily demanded Tan to move out, but ultimately relented due to her emotional pleading.
At the time, Tan's father promised to transfer the flat’s ownership under her name.
Yet, Tan was paranoid that he might go back on his word, leading her to decide to kill him if he did. Following this, she bought the largest cleaver available at a supermarket in September 2022.
Two months later, growing impatient, she pressed her father to complete the legal process of adding her name to the flat’s deed. However, he angrily rebuked her for secretly withdrawing part of her late adoptive mother’s Central Provident Fund savings without informing him.
During the argument, he declared that he would rather donate the flat than leave it to her.
The next afternoon, she asked her father one last time and received the same answer, and she decided to kill her father on the same day.
Final sentencing and defense
Tan pleaded guilty to culpable homicide due to diminished mental responsibility despite initially being charged with murder.
At the time of the incident, Tan was experiencing persecutory delusions resulting from schizoid personality disorder, leading her to believe her adoptive father was conspiring against her.
She was finally sentenced to 18 years in prison instead of life imprisonment as there was no evidence pointing to past unstable and violent behaviors.
(Khan Heeba Lazmi)
