A 39-year-old local man was arrested on Wednesday after he attacked his wife with a 17-cm-long cleaver during a divorce row, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lei Chi Hou said at a regular press conference yesterday.
The suspect surnamed Sam and the victim married in 2013, and live in a flat in the northern district, with two young children, according to Lei.
The Judiciary Police received a referral from the Public Security Police (PSP) in the early hours of Wednesday about a case involving a prohibited weapon and aggravated bodily harm, Lei said, adding that, according to a PJ investigation, the victim had repeatedly asked Sam for a divorce over the past four to five years because of personality differences between them, but all her requests were rejected by Sam.
Lei said that Sam had never attacked his wife until Tuesday night, when the victim asked for a divorce once again at home, during which Sam suddenly became agitated, rushed into the kitchen and appeared with a cleaver to threaten his wife not to divorce him. Lei added that while Sam was attacking his wife, his two children were in their bedroom.
After Sam was stopped by his mother, the victim managed to escape the scene and went to a hospital for outpatient treatment where she reported the case to the police, according to Lei, who noted that the victim’s injuries were confirmed to be incised wounds on her right shoulder and left ear, and bruises on her left ankle and right finger.
Lei said that PJ officers arrested Sam in another residential building in the northern district on the following day. Under questioning, Lei added, Sam denied the attack.
Sam, who told the police that he is unemployed, has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of causing aggravated bodily harm, coercion and possession of a prohibited weapon, Lei noted.
