An elderly psychiatric patient has admitted to killing her husband with a cleaver at their home in a Hong Kong public housing estate more than three years ago under the false idea that he was having an affair.
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Liu Siu-tjin, 77, pleaded guilty to manslaughter before a High Court judge on Wednesday after prosecutors agreed to reduce her original murder charge and accepted her plea of diminished responsibility on the basis of mental impairment.
The court heard the elderly woman had been on the radar of mental health services since 1986 when she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, a condition characterised by delusions, paranoia and distrust of others.
In August 2020, Liu began accusing her husband Lau Chi-kaw, whom she married in 1977, of having a mistress. The couple argued frequently, to the extent that the latter once stayed away from their residence in Kwai Chung’s Lai Yiu Estate to avoid further clashes.
At around 4am on February 25, 2021, Liu attacked her husband with a cleaver while he was sleeping, a few days after Lau had returned to stay in their public housing flat.