Indonesian domestic worker who stabbed Singapore employer 100 times has murder conviction set aside

Daryati was convicted of a reduced murder charge in April for brutally killing employer Seow Kim Choo and attempting to murder her husband in 2016

The 28-year-old will now pursue a diminished responsibility defence, meaning the conviction was set aside for the court to hear new arguments

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Singapore’s Supreme Court building. The case of an Indonesian domestic worker convicted of a lesser murder charge will resume in October to hear new arguments after she chose to qualify her plea of guilt. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:30pm, 22 Sep 2020Updated: 6:41pm, 22 Sep 2020

A domestic worker who was convicted in Singapore in April of a reduced murder charge for killing her employer had her conviction set aside on Monday, after choosing to pursue the defence of diminished responsibility.

As her new instructions would be qualifying her plea of guilt, the conviction was set aside for the court to hear new arguments on diminished responsibility.

For a defence of diminished responsibility to stand, the accused must be suffering from a specific abnormality of mind that substantially impaired her mental responsibility for causing the deaths.

This means that the trial for 28-year-old Indonesian Daryati will continue, with the defence expected to open its case in October. She will be convicted or acquitted only at the end of the trial.

She faces one count of murder by slashing and stabbing Seow Kim Choo multiple times on the night of Jun 7, 2016, in Seow’s Telok Kurau home.