Man jailed 10 years for grisly killing of fiancee in 2012

She had met him on a social networking site, and he had asked her to marry him.

Then in March 2012, almost a year after they met online, Ms Elsie Lie Lek Chee, 24, an administrative officer, was killed by Gabriel Lee Haw Ling, 37.

Lee, a security guard, had tried to decapitate his fiancee. He gouged her eyes out and cut her right foot. Pruning shears, a can opener, scissors and a hammer were found beside her body.

Yesterday, at the High Court, Lee, now 42, was jailed for 10 years after pleading guilty to a charge of culpable homicide.

He was originally charged with murder but the charge was reduced as a psychiatric report found he had a brief psychotic disorder.

Lee had believed Ms Lie was possessed. He had taken her to a church for an exorcism and made her carry a Bible in a bulky waist pouch, which she wore even at work.

The couple moved in together in June 2011, two months after meeting online. Lee was undergoing divorce proceedings with his wife at the time.

In December 2011, Lee began to believe the room they sublet was haunted and his fiancee was possessed.

At about 6pm on March 30, 2012, Lee gave Ms Lie a bath in the kitchen bathroom.

One housemate heard Lee groaning and snippets of loud conversation between the two.

He then left the flat. When he returned at 8.45pm, the couple were still in the bathroom.

'GO BACK TO THE SKY!'

A domestic helper from the flat upstairs heard a male voice shouting: "Go back! Go back to the sky!"

When the couple finally emerged from the bathroom, their housemates observed Ms Lie looking pale and being supported by Lee.

The couple returned to their room and loud groaning noises were heard until 11.10pm. The main tenant called the police.

Two police officers arrived at about 11.15pm and Lee told them he had quarrelled with Ms Lie.

The officers noticed she was lying on a mattress on the floor and appeared weak but had no physical injuries.

She told them she was weak from a recent abortion.

The two officers left at about 11.40pm after telling the couple to keep the peace.

At about 6.30am, a housemate noticed blood on the door of the couple's room and notified the main tenant, who called the police again.

A paramedic who arrived 10 minutes later saw Ms Lie, topless and covered in blood, lying on top of Lee, who was naked, on the mattress.

While the paramedic waited outside the room for the police, Lee gouged out Ms Lie's eyes and threw them out the window.

At about 6.55 am, the two police officers from before arrived and arrested Lee, who was kneeling next to Ms Lie, groaning and chanting while holding a yellow object that resembled a cross.

An autopsy found multiple injuries to her head, neck and limbs, and a gaping 12-cm wound across her neck that had cut her spinal cord.

Her eyeballs and clumps of hair were recovered at the foot of the block.

In court, her mother, Madam Chen Yoke Mooi, 54, told reporters in Mandarin: "My daughter died so horribly... Ten years for a life, it's not fair."