SINGAPORE - A 38-year old truck driver who repeatedly stabbed his wife, whom he suspected was having an affair with her supervisor, was on Monday (April 11) jailed nine years for killing her after he pleaded guilty to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

After killing 37-year-old Madam Wang Xueyan at his rented room in Tampines in December 2014, Zheng Xianghua went to a neighbouring block of flats where he stabbed and slashed himself and sat on the parapet between the eighth and ninth floors before he was eventually coaxed down hours by police officers.

The couple, both Chinese nationals, married in China in 2012 after meeting through QQ, a popular messaging application. They came to Singapore separately to work.

The High Court heard that Zheng suspected his wife was having an affair after she started wearing make-up and receiving compliments at work.

The couple then started living apart - which the defence attributed to a convenient arrangement for work. Madam Wang moved to Marsiling while Zheng rented a storeroom at a Tampines flat.

About 10 days before the stabbing, Zheng got his wife's roommate to spy on her. The roommate reported that Madam Wang had bought a mobile phone and was secretly contacting her supervisor.

On Dec 16, 2014, Madam Wang visited Zheng at his newly rented room and the couple had sex. But a quarrel broke out and Zheng stabbed her repeatedly with a knife he had bought two days earlier, intending to confront his wife's supervisor.

A government psychiatrist found that he suffered from pathological jealousy and severe depression.