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A Vietnamese woman reportedly instructed her stepdaughter to "poison" her own birth mother, and suggested for her to suffocate her mother thereafter.

According to Shin Min Daily News, the accused pleaded guilty to one charge in court on Jun. 16, 2022.

The charge involved asking her stepdaughter to administer medication with the intention of harming her husband's ex-wife.

Ex-wife allegedly humiliated her online

According to case details shared by Shin Min, the accused married a 44-year-old Singaporean man in 2018.

The man, who is a divorcee, has an eight-year-old daughter, and him and his ex-wife took turns to care for their daughter after the divorce.

The ex-wife allegedly always regarded the accused as "the mistress", and would send several texts castigating the accused, as well as humiliating her online.

As a result, the relationship between the accused and the ex-wife soured, and the accused harboured much resentment against the ex-wife.

When matters escalated

In January 2020, the accused reportedly asked her stepdaughter how she was referred to when the girl is with her birth mother.

Her stepdaughter then shared that she would refer to the accused as an "elder sister", to which the accused felt thoroughly disappointed by.

Feeling frustrated and angry, she ceased communications with her stepdaughter, which resulted in her stepdaughter panicking, and expressing her intentions to make amends.

The accused claimed that several days later, in the "heat of the moment" and after recalling the ex-wife's perceived injustices, she decided to crush one of her anti-anxiety pills into fine powder, and slip it into a plastic bag to pass to her stepdaughter.

She then allegedly instructed her stepdaughter to find an opportunity to slip the medication into her birth mother's water, and drug her.

She also told her stepdaughter to suffocate her mother to death with a pillow, after she'd passed out from ingesting the medication.

Stepdaughter carries out instructions

According to Shin Min, the stepdaughter then followed the accused's instructions and smuggled the "white powder" into her bag.

On Jan. 25, 2020, while staying with her mother in her home, the stepdaughter added the white powder into her mother's glass of water.

She allegedly did so on two separate occasions on the same day.

The first time, the girl's mother thought that the girl had spit into her drink, resulting in bubbles to form, and subsequently poured the drink away.

The girl later poured herself another glass of water, added more of the "white powder", and brought it to her mother to drink.

It was upon closer inspection of the second glass that the mother noticed powdery fragments at the cup's bottom, checked her daughter's bag, and realised that she was being drugged.

The accused claimed that she had only instructed the girl in a fit of anger, and had never thought that her stepdaughter would carry out her instructions.

She said that it was a relief that it had been discovered.

Accused suffers from mental disorder

According to Shin Min, the case is currently in a Newton hearing.

A Newton hearing can happen at any stage of the sentencing process, when there is a dispute of any fact which may materially affect one's sentence.

The accused suffers from a mental disorder, and is claiming that there is a casual link between her condition and the offence.

However, two psychiatrists have presented different opinions on the medical report.

The psychiatrist that represented the accused put forth that she could have developed adjustment disorder due to a difficult period of transition moving from Vietnam, followed by the alleged harassment from the ex-wife.

This subsequently resulted in her making a poor judgement call.

The psychiatrist representing the prosecution is also set to present their evidence in court.

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