A mother who stabbed her teenage daughter’s secret boyfriend after finding him semi-naked in her home wanted to protect her kids at “whatever cost” from someone she thought may have been armed, a Perth court has heard.
Jennifer Mui Len Chin is on trial in the District Court. accused of causing bodily harm to the teenager, who was aged 14 in 2023.
The court heard Ms Chin’s 14-year-old daughter had invited the teenager to the home and they had sex in the father’s bedroom, but when Ms Chin found the boy, she chased him and stabbed him in the chest and shoulders.
Ms Chin said she was “panicking” when she discovered him under the covers in her husband’s bedroom and thought he was naked.
Taking the stand, she described how she noticed the door to the bedroom was closed, and this was “unusual”.
Mum thought boy was armed, naked
The 49-year-old said she assumed her daughter was inside, and fearing she was using the internet — which she was not allowed to do — called out to her.
Her daughter opened the door and Ms Chin noticed “big, kind of dirty” sneakers on the floor before realising that “obviously there was someone under the doona”.
Jennifer Mui Len Chin says she was trying to protect her family when she confronted the teen. (ABC News: David Weber)
Ms Chin said she was “just panicking” as her daughter said something about a “homeless person”, and when she tried to pull the blanket off the bed, there was a tug of war with the teenager who was shirtless.
“I don’t know whether he’s armed,” she told the court. “I’m home alone with the two kids.”
“I have to protect my kids at whatever cost”.
Ms Chin said she heard the teenager repeatedly say he was sorry, which made her think he had done something to her daughter.
Stab wounds to chest
Earlier, the court heard stab wounds inflicted by Ms Chin on the boy penetrated the “entire depth” of his chest wall.
Dr Shaun Lee treated the teenager at Royal Perth Hospital for stab wounds to both sides of his chest, as well as superficial cuts on his back.
While Dr Lee said he did not measure the depth of the more serious chest wound, it “penetrated the entire depth of the chest wall”.
“There was a hole in his chest?” asked prosecutor Chadd Graham.
Prosecutor Chadd Graham outside court. (ABC News: David Weber)
“That’s correct,” Dr Lee responded.
The court also heard from Ms Chin’s son, who was six at the time and whom she asked to fetch a kitchen knife that she used in the stabbing.
On Thursday the court was shown a video of the boy recorded earlier this year, in which he said he did not see the stabbing take place.
He said he got the knife for his mother “because I was scared”.
The boy said the teenager “wasn’t wearing a shirt” and he remembered his mother “at least one time” saying the word “intruder”.
The trial continues.
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