PETALING JAYA: The Court of Appeal has increased a woman’s prison sentence for fatally stabbing her boyfriend in a hotel room from six years and six months to 12 years, ruling that the original sentence did not reflect the gravity of the offence.
A three-member bench comprising Justices Zaini Mazlan, Wong Kian Kheong and Evrol Mariette Peters unanimously allowed the prosecution’s appeal against the sentence imposed by the Johor Bahru High Court.
Peters, who delivered the broad grounds of judgment, said the High Court had been “over-sympathetic” towards the accused by placing excessive emphasis on her age while failing to give sufficient weight to the seriousness of the killing.
The Court of Appeal is sitting in Johor Bahru this week.
The woman, identified only as Shy to protect her identity, was 19 at the time of the incident on Sept 20, 2022.
She and her 29-year-old boyfriend, with whom she had been in a relationship for almost a year, checked into a hotel near Jalan Austin Heights.
According to court documents, an argument broke out after the man demanded sex. Shy refused, saying she was menstruating.
He then threatened her with a knife, prompting her to struggle with him for the weapon. During the struggle, she stabbed him multiple times in the chest.
An autopsy found 28 injuries, with multiple stab wounds to the chest listed as the cause of death.
Shy surrendered to the police and was initially charged with murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code.
Following representations by her lawyer, the prosecution agreed to reduce the charge to culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304(a). She pleaded guilty to the amended charge, and the High Court sentenced her to six years and six months in jail. - FMT
