MELBOURNE – A 24-year-old Indian, who cut his wife’s throat eight times with a box cutter and left her bleeding to death, has been found guilty of manslaughter by an Australian court which acquitted him of the first degree murder charge.
The New South Wales Supreme Court gave Singh a lesser conviction in murdering his 28-year-old wife Manpreet Kaur in their western Sydney home on the grounds he was provoked.
During the course of his trial in the court, the jury heard that Singh had been jealous of the new friendships his wife had forged in her adopted country and had beaten her on a number of occasions prior to killing her on December 29, 2009.
Singh pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but said he had been provoked and was therefore not guilty of first degree murder.
The couple married in India in September 2008 and Kaur moved to Australia on a student visa in January 2009. Her husband joined her on a dependent spouse visa in May 2009.
Singh’s barrister Chrissa Loukas told the jury his client had been caught in a “triangle of desperation” involving his wife’s infidelity, the threat of deportation, and family and financial pressures.
Crown prosecutor Paul Leask alleged Singh became jealous of his wife developing new friendships in Sydney, became violent towards her at times and killed her when she said she was leaving him.
On the night she was strangled and had her throat cut, Kaur was heard to scream out in Punjabi, “Save me, save me. I won’t do it again, sorry, sorry.”
Singh’s defence claimed just before she was killed, Kaur verbally abused him, repeatedly insulted his mother and said she loved another man.
Giving evidence during the trial, Singh told the jury: “I just lost it, I had no control of my body or mind.
“Manpreet said she never loved me, she love only (a man named) Preet,” he said.
“I gave my life to this girl, but she said I love other man.”
As well as losing control due to his wife saying she never loved him, Singh told the jury her brother made comments on a speaker phone from India about Singh’s mother.
Justice Peter McClellan adjourned sentencing proceedings to May 24.
