Court rejects appeal for man who killed woman and attempted sex with her corpse

On October 28, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeak of a man named Boh Soon Ho who was convicted of murdering a woman he thought was his girlfriend. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Reports also said that he had tried to have sex with her corpse after he murdered her, then fled to Malaysia when he realized he had committed a crime.

Who is Boh Soon Ho?

According to a report by Channel News Asia, 52-year-old Boh Soon Ho strangled anurse named Zhang Huaxiang with a bath towel in 2018 after getting frustrated that he was not able to have sex with her.

He had been going out with her for four to five years when he murdered her at his Circuit Road flat. He invited her for to a steamboat meal on March 21, 2016, and had asked her to have sex with him. When she refused, he killed her.

Aside from her rejection of his sexual advances, he found out that she was also seeing other men. He grew angry when he asked her about other men in her life and she said that it was quite normal to be having sexual relations with her previous boyfriend.

After he strangled her, he took off her clothes, took nude photos and tried to have sex with her corpose.

He escaped to Malaysia but was eventually found and arrested there and returned to Singapore.

Low IQ and sudden provocation

The man and his lawyers appealed the sentencing due to the dismissal of man’s defence of grave and sudden provocation. The lawyers argued that Boh considered the woman to be his girlfriend since they would go out on dates. He then expected exclusivity.

The charges against Boh should have been homicide instead of murder.

Another point raised by the defence was that Boh had an IQ of only 74, which was very low and within the rang of functioning lower than 96% of the population. Due to the low IQ of the convicted and the length of time he and the woman had spent together, he may have thought that they were in a relationship even when there was no formal acknowledgment.

They had gone on dates, shopped for items such as intimate clothing, and shared food. Boh also told others that she was his girlfriend.

The defence also argued that his understanding of social situations was not the same as other people. Boh claimed he has asked her to marry him, but she did not reply.

Judges dismissed the appeal over sex with corpse

The judges in the case then said that the grave and sudden provocation couldn’t have happened since the woman answered his question regarding their relationships even as she was being strangled.

The appeal was dismissed because the reason for the man to kill the nurse was that he was refused sex, and not anything she had said during their argument.

“This fortifies our view that the appellant was frustrated and agitated that he had not had sex with her and had not even had a chance to look at her naked body. We are satisfied that the frustration and anger were not due to any alleged provocation.” said the judges.