Man sentenced to 9 years' jail after stabbing HIV-positive male friend

SINGAPORE - A man, now 30, refused to be intimate with his HIV-positive male friend who was supporting him financially and stabbed the 44-year-old victim after the older man decided to end their friendship.

The victim needed a procedure to surgically remove a small part of his bowel as a result of the attack in 2018. The assailant cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the victim's identity.

The Singaporean offender, who appeared in a district court via video-link, was on Thursday (Dec 16) sentenced to nine years' jail, nine strokes of the cane and a fine of $3,600.

He had pleaded guilty on Oct 28 to 10 charges including voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a weapon and multiple drug-related crimes, including methamphetamine possession and consumption.

The offender was also disqualified from driving all classes of vehicles for a year for one count each of failing to stop after an accident and using a vehicle without insurance coverage.

The two men had lived together from May 2018 in a rented condominium unit.

On Aug 17 that year, the assailant had returned home with another man.

The following night, he and the victim got into an argument over text messages.

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The victim decided he wanted to end their friendship and left the unit. But he returned at about 11pm that night.

When he arrived home, the accused confronted him at the door and placed the pointed edge of a parang (a large knife) on the left of the victim's neck.

The pair also argued about the victim's HIV-positive status and the assailant's refusal to be intimate with him.

After about 10 minutes, they calmed down and the victim went to a bedroom and fell asleep.

At around 4am, he woke up and noticed the younger man was not in the bedroom. He also realised that his wallet, NRIC and laptop were missing.

The victim panicked when he could not open the bedroom door and started kicking it while shouting the assailant's name.