Gardens by the Bay murder: Accused claimed he would have 'better plan' if he intended to kill lover
Accused told this to police to deny that he had intended to kill female victim
If he had intended to commit murder, he would not have gotten caught as he would have had a proper plan.
Accused murderer Leslie Khoo Kwee Hock said this in a statement a day after his arrest, when he was told by the police that he was being charged for the murder of 31-year-old engineer Cui Yajie.
The statement was read out in court yesterday, as the prosecution wrapped up its three-day cross-examination of Khoo in his ongoing murder trial.
Khoo had strangled Ms Cui, a Chinese national, inside his car along a road near Gardens by the Bay on July 12, 2016.
He later burnt her body at Lim Chu Kang Lane 8.
Faced with a murder charge on July 21, Khoo denied he had any intention to kill her. "If I had the intention, I would have had a better plan," he said in the handwritten statement.
Khoo, who went to jail in 2010 for cheating, said in the statement that he got caught in the past because he did not plan properly.
He concluded in the statement: "I am good in my work. If I plan carefully, I would not make mistakes."
Yesterday, Deputy Attorney-General Hri Kumar Nair said of the statement: "This was the arrogance of a conman."
The senior counsel contended that despite holding himself out as a reformed and religious person after his release from prison in 2012, Khoo continued his cheating activities and extramarital affairs.
Putting the prosecution's case to Khoo, Mr Nair said that when Ms Cui told him over the phone in the early hours of July 12 that she was going to his company, he tried to talk her out of it but failed.
Faced with the prospect of losing his job, his family and going back to jail, Khoo strangled the victim, said Mr Nair. "You knew exactly what you were doing."
After killing her, Khoo decided on the very same day that he was going to burn the body, said Mr Nair.
Khoo initially told police that he bought charcoal from a minimart in Sembawang on the night of the killing.
He later said he could not remember which day he went.
Khoo will continue on the stand today to be questioned by his own lawyer.
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