IT WAS jealousy that drove Wu Yun Yun - opposition party member Tan Lead Shake's China-born wife - to stab her 34-year-old brother-in-law to death and to slash his wife.
Wu, 26, suffered from major depression which qualified her for the defence of diminished responsibility, the High Court heard on Friday.
Originally charged with murder, the Singapore permanent resident pleaded guilty to committing culpable homicide, not amounting to murder, by stabbing Tan Lead Sane, 33, and to attempted culpable homicide for her attack on 36-year-old Madam Huang Meizhe.
Justice Kan Ting Chiu adjourned sentencing for six months to allow psychiatrist George Joseph Fernandez to monitor Wu's mental state.
The senior consultant of the Institute of Mental Health testified that he needed this time to check if her mental condition would improve.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Diane Tan had earlier told the court that Wu came to Singapore from China in 2001 to marry Mr Tan Lead Shake.
The couple shared a house in Paya Lebar Crescent with Madam Ng, her eldest son Tan Lead Hand, and Mr Tan Lead Sane and his wife, who is also from China.
Wu became jealous of Mr Tan Lead Sane and his wife, as they appeared to be more 'loved' by her mother-in-law. She began to think about killing her brother-in-law and in early June last year bought a fruit knife and hid it. At 5.30am on June 28, Wu stabbed Madam Huang in the neck.
The commotion woke Mr Tan Lead Sane; he was stabbed twice in the chest and once in the abdomen. When Madam Ng tried to stop Wu leaving the house, she too was slashed.
Wu later called her husband and surrendered before being arrested. She could be jailed up to 20 years or for life.
