Trial told of choking with cord

A man accused of murdering his former girlfriend's mother told gardaí he tried to choke her after she said she did not want him…

A man accused of murdering his former girlfriend's mother told gardaí he tried to choke her after she said she did not want him to see her daughter any more, a court heard yesterday.

Mr Haw Yong Lamhin (21), a Malaysian, told gardaí he started fighting with Ms Mook Ah Mooi (49) on August 22nd last year after she told him her daughter was going to France with another man, a murder trial jury at the Central Criminal Court heard.

"She told me I would have to go back to Malaysia and she didn't want her \ seeing me any more," Mr Lamhin said through an interpreter in an interview with gardaí on August 23rd last year, which was played to the jury yesterday.

"We started to fight, and I was afraid a neighbour would hear, and that's how I lost control. I grabbed her neck," he told them.

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He also said in the interview that he had been trying to silence Ms Mooi's screams, and she had called for help from her grandchildren (both aged under 5), but they had been unable to intervene.

Mr Lamhin, with an address at Castle Lawns, Tallaght, in Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Mooi, who was also Malaysian and lived at the same address.

He pleaded guilty to her manslaughter, but the plea was not accepted by the prosecution.

In the interview with gardaí, Mr Lamhin, who sobbed throughout most of the interrogation, said he was unable to keep Ms Mooi quiet by choking her, so he grabbed a shoelace from the floor and tied it round her neck.

The court had heard on Thursday from the Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Marie Cassidy, that Ms Mooi died from strangulation with a cord.

The court heard that Mr Lamhin told gardaí he was devastated that his girlfriend, Ms Fui Ling Pang, had dumped him before the fight with Ms Mooi and he had been unable to sleep and felt he was losing his mind.

He also said in the interview he had tried to kill himself after attacking Ms Mooi by jumping in the Liffey in Dublin. He told gardaí he would give his life to bring her back if he could, the court heard.

The trial, before Mr Justice O'Higgins, will continue on Monday when the defence is expected to put its case.