DESCRIBED as a doting father, Eu Lim Hoklai was sentenced to death yesterday for murdering his China mistress - on Father's Day - three years ago.

Justice Kan Ting Chiu rejected the 56-year-old's claim that he acted in self-defence against Madam Yu Hongjin, 30.

She was killed in the Ang Mo Kio massage parlour she ran and forensic experts found few signs of a violent struggle, the judge said in his grounds of decision.

He noted that a witness in the hair salon next door did not hear any sounds of a fight, but heard cries when Eu's wife and daughter turned up.

At the trial last year, Eu, a seafood stall owner, admitted lying to his family about meeting a fishmonger when instead he was with Madam Yu, a masseuse.

The two first met in mid-2005 when she solicited him for business and they had sex four times in hotels. He told the court he paid for her trips to China and had spent about $30,000 on her.

He paid her rent on her Ang Mo Kio flat but was not allowed to visit her because she said the neighbours might gossip. Her son, then 11, lived with a relative.

Having lavished so much money on her, he was furious to see a man leaving her flat on the morning of June 14, 2006.

Four days later, he went to her massage parlour to end their relationship.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times