Sydney – An Australian woman who admitted killing her ex-lover and attempting to hack off his penis was jailed for three years and nine months on Wednesday, with a court accepting she was suffering depression.
Jian Chen, aged 47, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her former partner Jin Xiang Peng over his fatal sedation and stabbing in February 2011 amid a protracted and bitter dispute over money and their young son.
Jian told a psychiatrist that “something inside me” told her to destroy the “monster’s weapon”, that he “uses his penis to harm woman and children”.
“I knew Peng used his penis to capture women, to have children by them, use the children as tools to squeeze money out of us,” Jian said, according to the sentencing.
“Something just urged me to do it, don’t let the monster to harm any more children.
“I remember I cut some of his penis. I went to flush it down the toilet, to flush it down so he couldn’t harm any more children and he couldn’t harm any more women.”
‘Gratuitous cruelty’
She laced his soup with sedatives before the attack and called emergency services to report that “somebody is dying”, telling the operator “I kill him, my ex-boyfriend, he’s a crook”, admitting stabbing him in the neck and penis.
Judge Monika Schmidt said police found the victim with his wrists and feet bound and excessive blood loss from wounds to his neck and groin, the latter which she described as involving “considerable gratuitous cruelty”.
“An attempt to castrate him had been made. He had lacerations to the left side of his groin and his penis had been scalped,” Schmidt said, adding that he later died from his “gross mutilation” injuries in hospital.
“The autopsy report showed that he had suffered defensive wounds. It follows that the victim was not unconscious while the offender inflicted all of the injuries which he suffered.”
Schmidt jailed Jian for a minimum of three years and nine months, finding she was suffering from an “abnormality of the mind arising from an underlying long-standing depressive illness” which had “substantially impaired” her judgment.
She also noted Jian’s early guilty plea, remorse and prior good character in handing down the sentence. She will be eligible for release in November 2014 with time already served.
AFP
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