Ololade Adeyanju/
A jealous husband has been remanded in prison custody by a Cambodian court after he admitted beheading his wife then riding away on a motorcycle with her head stuffed in a sack.
The suspect, who appeared at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court this morning, was remanded in custody for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to charges against him.
Phuong Ratha, 27, reportedly slaughtered his partner, Ly Srey Nouch, 23, after he became convinced she was seeing other men in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.
He attacked her at the home they share with their one-year-old son, slitting her throat and severing her neck with a huge meat cleaver after flying into a rage on Friday.
He then stuffed her head in a white sack and rode away on a motorcycle before dumping it in a nearby wasteland.
The couple’s horrified neighbour, Phan Sreyphet, 48, checked on the pair later that day but was shocked to find Ly’s dismembered corpse on the blood-stained white tile floor.
Police immediately launched a manhunt for the husband and found him the next day in his home town in Takeo province around 60 miles away.
Phuong told police that he slit his wife’s throat in a jealous rage and tried to conceal her head.
He said, “I was jealous because I felt like my wife was acting differently. I didn’t beat her before I killed her. I used a white knife to cut her throat.”
The husband said he and Ly moved into the property in Phnom Penh in February. They were starting a new life with their son.
But neighbours told police the husband was “violent and abusive”. He would allegedly shout at Ly and accuse her of chatting to other men on her phone.
Phan, the neighbour who found the body, said, “I heard them arguing a lot and the husband would often shout.
“He was very jealous. I was worried about the wife and checked on her in the evening. That’s when I found her body on the floor.”
In a statement released by the Boeung Kak district police, an officer said that the victim’s mutilated body was found in a pool of blood by neighbours. They immediately called the authorities around 7pm.
They said, ‘The victim was found face-down on a tiled floor with her throat cut. Only the couple lived in the rental unit. There are no other suspects and the husband has confessed.”
Lieutenant general Song Ly, Deputy Commissioner for Criminal Planning at the Phnom Penh Municipal Police, said the husband had been driven by jealously.
He said, “The attack was motivated by anger and jealousy. An arrest warrant was issued and the suspect was caught. He has admitted to murdering his wife in a violent and brutal way. He will formally face the charges in court.”
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