SINGAPORE: The High Court on Friday dismissed the appeal by the elderly woman who had been sentenced to one-year jail for poisoning her 73-year-old husband with arsenic.
Fong Quay Sim, 71, poisoned Mr Chan Tin Sun by lacing his food with arsenic between 2004 and 2005 in their Siglap home. Her trial ended in May last year.
In his grounds of
decision, Justice Choo Han Teck said the medical evidence was clear,
reasonable, and undisputed. The damage to Mr Chan was caused by arsenic.
He added that Fong was the only one who had access to Mr Chan's food and had the motive to poison him.
Justice Choo also noted that Fong had also made incriminating statements in three statements over two separate occasions.
Justice
Choo earlier noted that Fong had questioned the credibility of the
investigating officer who was later charged with using the police
force's computer system to make unauthorised database searches for his
own use.
Justice Choo said he disallowed the evidence regarding
this because it would not have had a significant influence on the
outcome of the appeal.
On whether the sentence was "manifestly
excessive", Justice Choo noted that District Judge Ng Peng Hong had
considered Fong's old age, deep vein thrombosis, hypertension and
unhappy marital life.
However, he noted that Mr Chan had suffered anaemia and liver cirrhosis from the poisoning.
Justice Choo said: "It was not a one-off incident but was planned and carried out periodically over a long period of time."
Given
that the penalty for the offence is a jail term of up to 10 years and a
fine, the one-year sentence was not manifestly excessive, said Justice
Choo.
Fong, who was in court with her son on Friday, asked for a one-month deferment of her sentence to settle divorce matters.
Justice Choo granted her request. She will start serving her sentence next month.
- CNA/ir