Man killed his wife and dog while hallucinating they were ‘demons’
A man has been jailed who killed his wife and dog assuming they were devils that he had to get rid of “from this plane of existence”.
on January 3, 2020, in the residential estate of Compass vale Bow in Singapore, Paul Leslie Quirk, 49, who experienced a recurrence of schizophrenia at the time of the attack, brutally beat wife Christina Khoo Gek Hwa, 43, with a combative arts weapon known as a pair of kali sticks and a hanger in a bid to “finish her” at a third-floor flat.
When she ran back into the residence and ultimately fallen, he fatally cut her multiple times in the neck with a kitchen knife.
Also, he then stabbed and killed the couple’s 10-month-old pet poodle and threw it off the balcony. When policemen came at the spot after being called by worried neighbors who heard the disturbance, Quirk told them he was “Jesus Christ” and that he had killed his wife because “she is a demon”.
He continued that “he had killed the family dog because it was “the demon’s familiar” that “could have brought the demon back to life”, and that by throwing it off the balcony he had thrown it “into the abyss”.
On Monday, May 24, Australian podiatrist Quirk was condemned to 10 years in jail at the High Court after he alleged guilty to a charge of blamable homicide.
The charge was decreased from murder, as his psychiatric condition was imposed to have considerably weakened his mental responsibility for his acts. But another charge, of mischief for killing the dog, was taken into consideration.
Quirk, who was from Melbourne and was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2005, had grown more sporadic in taking his medication in the few months leading up to the killing on Jan 2 last year.
On the night of January 2 last year, the couple quarreled Quirk to his backpacking and leaving to go and stay with family who was visiting from Australia.
Upon his return, the couple went to the nearby Catholic Spirituality Centre along Upper Serangoon Road.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Andre Chong said that “At the center, the accused heard a voice telling him repeatedly: ‘I have a chance to stop this from getting worse,”.
DPP Chong added more: “These voices were very insistent, and told him that the deceased was evil and that staying with her would upset the order and balance of everything.
He also saw a passer-by wearing a marathon ‘finisher’ t-shirt, that his mind broke down to ‘finish her’.”
Back home, Quirk took a shower and heard voices directing him: “Now is the time to strike. Hurry up, you have to take this opportunity”.
Just before noon, Quirk started hitting Khoo energetically and without warning on the head and upper body. She ran to the balcony and cried for help.
The court heard Quirk sustained hitting her, shouting: “You die, you die!”
When she collapsed, Quirk retrieved a knife from the kitchen and frequently stabbed her neck.
After killing the dog, he sent a text message to his brother saying: “It is done.” DPP Chong also said: “The accused only ceased his attack after he was satisfied that he had killed the deceased”.