SINGAPORE, March 23 — A Singaporean man has admitted to the manslaughter of his wife, while they were on holiday in England last year.
Fong Soong Hert, 50, pleaded guilty to manslaughter last Friday (March 18), but he denied a charge of murdering his wife, Pek Ying Ling, who was aged 51.
Prosecutors have not accepted his manslaughter indictment at the moment, the Newcastle Crown Court told TODAY in an email yesterday.
He remains remanded in custody until the trial, which is scheduled to begin on June 6.
Pek was found dead on December 6 last year at the County Aparthotel, a four-star hotel on Westgate Road in Newcastle, north-east England.
The Northumbria police received a “a report of concern” at 3.15pm Singapore time (or 7.15am Greenwich Mean Time) that day for a woman at the address of a hotel on Westgate Road.
Pek was not breathing when she was found and she was later pronounced dead at the scene by the authorities, British broadcasters ITV and BBC said at the time.
Her husband was arrested that morning as a suspect.
In a joint family statement a few days later, the couple’s three sons said that they were “supposed to meet up for a family holiday”.
“The whole situation is a huge shock to us,” they said.
The couple used to work together at an events management firm in Singapore and had been married for nearly 30 years, with family members describing the couple as "very loving", Singapore’s national daily The Straits Times reported.
They had met their oldest son in Newcastle during their holiday there, with plans to meet their two other children later on the same trip. ― TODAY
