A Burmese maid who stabbed her male employer’s mother-in-law 26 times was initially sentenced to life imprisonment for murder but had her charge reduced to manslaughter after a successful appeal.
The defendant, Zin Mar Nwe, 24, was charged with murdering her employer’s 70-year-old mother-in-law on 25 Jun 2018 in a HDB flat in the west of Singapore.
The case went to trial in November 2021, with the High Court judge finding Zin Mar Nwe guilty of murder and sentencing her to life imprisonment.
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Zin appealed both the conviction and sentence. The appeal was heard on 14 May 2025 by the Court of Appeal led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon.
To protect underage witnesses involved in the case, the judges ordered the media not to report the names of the deceased and family members, or specific location details.
Background and Defence
Zin Mar Nwe’s defence lawyers pointed out that she came to Singapore to work when she was just 17 years old. Within five months of arriving in a foreign country, she had changed employers three times.
When the victim told her, “Tomorrow you go back to the agency,” this meant to Zin Mar Nwe that she might be sent home while still owing debt to the agency.
This statement caused “grave and sudden provocation” that made Zin Mar Nwe lose control, resulting in actions completely out of character with her personality.
The lawyers also stated that the threat to send the maid back to the agency came after Zin Mar Nwe had been scolded and hurt by the victim for some time. They argued Zin Mar Nwe had not planned to stab the victim with a knife, and it wasn’t a calm or rational decision.
The prosecution countered that, besides the defendant’s testimony, no evidence showed she suffered physical abuse before or on the day of the incident.
They argued that without abuse, the victim telling Zin Mar Nwe she would be sent back to the agency the next day wasn’t sufficient to constitute “grave and sudden provocation.”
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The prosecution maintained that sending a foreign domestic worker back to an agency after poor performance over time was normal and reasonable.
Chief Justice Menon delivered an oral judgment noting that Zin Mar Nwe was young and feared being sent back to her home country in debt, and hence stated that a rational person in the same situation might also be provoked. The appeal was granted, reducing the defendant’s murder charge to manslaughter.
After the judges made their decision, the case was adjourned to give both sides time to submit sentencing arguments. Manslaughter carries a potential life sentence, or up to 20 years imprisonment, plus a possible fine.
Zin Mar Nwe was represented pro bono by lawyers Eugene Wong and Sunil Sudheesan from WongPartnership.
Case Details
Earlier trial proceedings revealed that Zin Mar Nwe came to Singapore from Myanmar to work in January 2018. Following the agency’s instructions, she falsely reported her age to meet Singapore’s minimum age requirement for domestic workers.
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On 10 May 2018, she began working for the victim’s son-in-law, her third employer since arriving in Singapore. The victim came to Singapore that same month to visit relatives and stayed temporarily with her daughter and son-in-law for a month.
According to Zin Mar Nwe’s testimony, shortly after moving in, the victim began to abuse her, hitting her on the head and back, and beating her with a spoon.
On one occasion, when Zin Mar Nwe caused pain while giving the victim a massage, the victim slapped her face. Another time, when the defendant accidentally burned the victim’s hand while cooking, the victim angrily pulled her hand toward the stove fire, wanting her to “experience” being burned.
Zin Mar Nwe claimed she was good to the victim despite frequent abuse, which made her increasingly angry. In her statement, she admitted that on the day of the incident, when the victim threatened to send her back to the agency the next day, she became extremely angry, her whole body shaking, then grabbed a knife and repeatedly stabbed the victim.
The autopsy report showed at least 26 stab wounds on the victim’s body, with six penetrating vital organs, including the lungs and heart.
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After the victim died, Zin Mar Nwe pried open the bedroom cabinet lock, took her personal belongings, and washed the knife. She then changed into a dress, left the flat, and went to the maid agency to retrieve her passport.
She quickly left after learning that staff would contact her employer, then spent about five hours wandering around taking multiple buses and MRT trains before returning to the agency, where police arrested her that evening.
Seven days after her arrest, Zin Mar Nwe was sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for bone age testing, which revealed she was only 17 years old at the time, not 23 as stated in her passport.
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