Man admits killing wife for refusing to give him money to settle his gambling debt
A man who allegedly set
his wife on fire which resulted in her death told a Malaysia High Court
yesterday, April 7 that his wife had refused to give him money to settle a
gambling debt.
Chiam Nguang Huat, 42,
said he had made a telephone call to ask for RM10,000 from his wife, Lai Siew
Fong, 36, for a gambling debt.
"I asked for
RM10,000 because I needed the money to pay a gambling debt. But my wife said ‘You
fikir sendiri’ (You think on your own) and asked me to ‘go die’ before
hanging up on me. I called her again but the phone had been turned off,
the former loan shark said when testifying in his defence before Judicial
Commissioner Datuk Nordin Hassan.
Chiam is charged with murdering
Lai at their home in Taman Bayu Mutiara, Bukit Mertajam, at around 4pm
on June 24, 2013. He also said that upon reaching home, he saw his wife and
daughter seated on the sofa.
"I asked my wife,
‘Is it true you want to see me die? If it’s true, I will die in front of you
right now. My wife tried to snatch a small mineral bottle containing petrol,
which I was holding and during the struggle, the petrol was splashed on my body
and my wife’s and suddenly, fire struck," he said during
examination-in-chief by his counsel Y. Anbananthan.
The former hawker, said
he had quarrelled with his wife several times during their marriage because she
listened to her family and refused to give him money.
During cross-examination
by DPP Amir Hamdzah Othman, Chiam said he was holding the bottle containing
petrol with his right hand and a cigarette butt in his left hand.
Amir Hamdzah also
suggested to Chiam that if he had wanted to kill himself, there were many ways
to do so. To this, Chiam replied that he was not thinking much at the time.
The judicial
Commissioner told both parties to submit their written submissions on or before
April 28. He also fixed May 3 for further submissions, if there is a need, and
May 24 for decision.
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