Warning: This story contains descriptions of self-harm & other details that might be distressing to some. Reader discretion is advised.

A Singaporean man repeatedly stabbed his pregnant wife while she was asleep until she died in their flat at Ang Mo Kio.

He was in a depressed state over his company, which he was under the impression was going under, and could not sleep for a month before the fatal incident.

After killing his wife, Isabel Elizabeth Francis, 30, the then-33-year-old David Brian Chow Kwok-Hun attempted to commit suicide.

After two more attempts to self-harm and a message from his father, Chow called the police to turn himself in.

It was later revealed that Chow's belief that his company was failing was false and a result of an accounting error.

It turned out that his business was profitable, earning around S$1 million in profit within a recent financial year, and would likely be in the black for the next two years.

Couple's family and friends were in court

Chow, now 35, appeared in the High Court on Oct. 26, 2023.

His head was shorn, and he wore a white t-shirt under a purple jacket with the word "PRISONER", brown long pants and transparent slippers.

He mostly closed his eyes and clasped both hands together before the hearing began.

He spoke to his lawyers briefly when they arrived.

The gallery was filled with people who knew the couple as well as members of the media.

An accounting error which led to everything

According to the facts of the case, as revealed by the prosecution in court, his wife was 15 weeks pregnant with a baby girl at the material time.

They were married on Dec. 28, 2019, and moved into their HDB flat at Ang Mo Kio in May 2021.

Chow was the chief executive and managing director of KnowledgeTree Training Centre, a security training organisation.

In December 2021, he asked an accountant for his company's half-year financial report.

Chow asked the accountant to run the numbers once more as he thought there was an error when he saw that the numbers were really low.

The accountant did so but found and presented Chow with the same results once more in early January 2022.

On the accountant's third check, they realised their folly and learnt that the company was actually profitable.

Thought his business was doomed to fail

By that point, however, Chow was convinced that the business was headed for failure.

By January 2022, he became so stressed over the company's finances that he had insomnia and only slept one to two hours every night for a month before the incident.

He took medicine for insomnia, but it did not work, and he spent his nights pacing up and down his house.

His wife, family and those around him became increasingly alarmed by his condition.

Family tried to help

Chow spoke to his manager, who reassured him that the company was still making a profit.

He also spoke with his mother and brother, both of whom reassured him that the company would be fine for the next two years due to past years' profits.

Despite their reassurances, Chow continued to lose sleep over the company's finances and what he thought would be its inevitable failure.

He began seeing things in his head like images of soldiers marching, a devil, and a "scary doll".

On Jan. 10, 2022, Chow was observed to appear listless when he appeared in office.

His mother brought him out for lunch and sent him home afterwards.

Chow took the melatonin that his mother had given him and took an afternoon nap.

Chow's family were worried about him and insisted that they all eat dinner together with his wife that evening.

They even helped him to book a counselling session with a catholic counsellor, which was scheduled for Jan. 11, 2022 afternoon.

Thought about killing his wife, unborn child and himself

After dinner with his wife and his family, Chow could not sleep that night and continued pacing around the house at about 1am on Jan. 11.

Still thinking about his business, he looked at the LinkedIn profiles of his competitors and logged onto his company's e-learning portal.

When he realised that his employee had yet to rectify an issue on the portal, Chow's thoughts began to spiral downwards.

By around 3am to 4am, he began thinking about killing himself.

The court heard that this was the first time that Chow had suicidal thoughts.

At some point, Chow hatched the idea of killing his wife before committing suicide, as he did not want his suicide to bring her any possible shame.

He was also concerned that people would come after her and his family after his business failed.

In killing his wife, Chow thought that she and the unborn child would be "spared", and he hoped he would one day meet them "in heaven".

Killed wife while she was asleep

Chow went to the kitchen and chose the "sharpest knife" as he wanted "everything to end fast".

His wife was sleeping in the master bedroom with her back facing the door.

At around 5am on Jan. 11, Chow walked to her, turned her, stabbed her in the abdomen and covered her mouth with his left hand to cover her screams.

While stabbing her in multiple parts of her body, he said, "Sorry, I have no way out."

His wife tried to escape and crawled to the door, but Chow stabbed her in the head.

Tried to kill himself but did not die

After killing his wife, Chow went to check if anyone was alerted to his wife's screams.

He then went into the kitchen to take another knife.

He stabbed himself in both sides of his neck and other parts of his body before kneeling on the ground to beg "the devil to take him" but allow "his wife and child to go to heaven".

Chow was still conscious when he received a message from his father at around 7am.

He then went to the fridge to consume a random assortment of tablets.

By around 7:30am, he decided to turn himself in as he did not want to implicate his father nor for his father to see the state he and his wife were in.

He also told his father not to go to his house.

He crawled to the door to unlock the door for the police and lied on the floor while waiting for them to arrive.

The police found his wife lying motionless on the floor, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Chow, who was injured when he was arrested, was conveyed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where a field magistrate charged him with murder on Jan. 12, 2022.

Charge reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder

On Oct. 26, the court heard that Chow was charged with one count of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for causing his wife's death by stabbing her multiple times in her head, neck, abdomen and back sometime around 5am on Jan. 11, 2022.

This was a reduction from his previous charge of murder.

According to the autopsy results, his wife had suffered 10 stab wounds and five incised wounds on her head, neck and torso, two of which were fatal wounds that would result in fatal blood loss.

Suffering from adjustment disorder

According to an Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist, Chow was found to be suffering from adjustment disorder with anxious and depressed mood with anxious and depressed mood at the time of the offence.

While the defence psychiatrist had a differing opinion on the subtype of Chow's adjustment disorder, they agreed with the IMH assessment that Chow was suffering from anxious and depressed mood at the material time.

The prosecutor noted that Chow had "catastrophic thinking" that people would go after his wife after she went bankrupt.

However, he argued that Chow had performed goal-directed actions during the incident, and thus, his impulse control was not impaired.

He listed five examples, which include Chow testing the knives' sharpness, turning the wife around before stabbing her and checking whether anyone heard her screams, and finding that Chow was not of unsound mind and fit to plead guilty.

Prosecution: Chow had some control

Chow pleaded guilty to the charge.

The prosecution sought nine to 12 years' jail.

The prosecution acknowledged that the incident was a "tragic case" but argued that "tragic circumstances must be counterbalanced" by society’s abhorrence to Chow's violence towards his wife, who was pregnant at the time.

The prosecution argued that Chow did not lack impulse control because he did not kill his wife out of impulse and performed goal-directed actions in the steps leading up to his wife's death.

The prosecution added that Chow could have chosen not to proceed with the act in the steps leading up to his wife's death, but he did.

The prosecution further argued that the death of Chow and his wife's unborn child "must count for something" and that there "must be some level of accounting".

Defence: Chow lost control

On the other hand, the defence sought five to seven years' jail.

The defence noted that Chow, his wife and their family were just having dinner on Jan. 10, the night before the fatal incident, and argued that Chow and his wife were a happy, loving couple.

The defence said there was "absolutely no reason, no motivation" for Chow to kill his wife and argued that Chow had acted completely out of character and lost control.

"If Chow were in control, he would not have done this. His irrational, intrusive thoughts had taken over, and he was just following his thoughts."

The defence noted that while his wife's family did not write in to request a lighter sentence, neither did they request for a heavier sentence to be imposed on Chow.

Finally, the defence argued that the length of the sentence imposed does not matter to Chow because he has lost his wife and his daughter for reasons that he cannot comprehend.

"He is going to live the rest of his life knowing that two people he loved have died because of him. This is like a life sentence for him. He has lost everything."

Sentenced to seven years' jail

Chow started sobbing at this point. Several members of the public in the gallery teared up.

Delivering his decision, the judge said Chow finally found success in his company after spending his childhood growing up in his siblings' shadows.

His company was the one thing that he worked really hard on, and thus, the thought of its failure, though falsely conceived, gave him immeasurable grief.

The judge referred to the 21 character references that the defence had gathered from Chow's friends, family and even business competitors and said he agreed with the defence that Chow's actions were totally out of character and not premeditated.

He was of the view that Chow's killing of his wife was not borne out of animosity or malice but out of a desire to spare his wife and his future child from suffering.

The judge said this was in line with the police investigations, which displayed that Chow had no other motivation for his killing.

Additionally, the judge noted IMH's assessment that there was a likely causal link between Chow's adjustment disorder and his offence.

The judge sentenced Chow to seven years' jail, backdated to the time of his arrest on Jan. 11, 2022.

Chow's brother teared up once the sentence was passed.

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Top image from Shin Min Daily News