A schizophrenic man, who beat his wife with martial arts weapons and eventually stabbed her to death after believing she is a "demon", was sentenced to 10 years in jail on Monday, May 24.
Paul Leslie Quirk was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2005. He murdered his 43-year-old wife, Christina Khoo Gek Hwa, on January 2, 2020, at their Buangkok condominium in Singapore.
A "bloodied white dog" was also found dead on the pavement outside their apartment building.
Quirk, who was from Melbourne moved to Singapore in 2016 and married Khoo the following year.
The couple, along with her son, now aged 15, from her first marriage, moved into a third-floor apartment at Esparina Residences.
On the day before the fatal incident, the couple reportedly had an argument after Quirk told his wife that he wanted to go back to Australia.
He then walked out of the house to meet his parents and brother who were in the city to visit him.
In the early hours on Jan 2, Quirk sent a series of WhatsApp text messages to his wife, apologizing for walking out on her. He told her that he was not in the right state of mind and was quite confused.
Quirk returned to their condo and the couple then went to the nearby Catholic Spirituality Centre later in the morning.
There, Quirk reportedly heard a voice telling him repeatedly: "I have a chance to stop this from getting worse."
The voices told Quirk that Khoo was evil and that living with her would toss the order and balance of everything.
He also noticed a passer-by wearing a marathon "finisher" t-shirt, which he read as "finish her".
Quirk did not tell Khoo about the voices he heard and the couple returned home.
As Quirk took a shower, the voices in his head told him that now is the time to strike.
He came out of the shower and grabbed two pairs of sticks, used by those who practice the martial art Kali, and began hitting her "forcefully and indiscriminately" on her body and head, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Andre Chong told the court.
Khoo ran out onto the balcony and screamed for help, but Quirk continued to assault her.
Neighbors reported seeing her leaning forward on the balcony, bleeding. As she stretched out her hand in a plea for help, Quirk quickly pulled her back.
He then continued beating her until she finally collapsed on the floor.
Quirk then grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her to death.
He also stabbed their pet dog several times, before throwing the poodle off the balcony.
Police responded to the home after receiving several reports of the assault.
Quirk, covered in blood, opened the door for the responding officers and told them that he had killed his wife because she was a demon whom he had to get rid of "from this plane of existence", adding that he "felt more at peace" after killing her.
He told the officers that he killed the dog because it was the "demon’s familiar".
On Monday, Quirk, now aged 49, pleaded guilty to culpable homicide and was sentenced in the High Court to 10 years jail.
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