A 24-year-old Indian student has been jailed for life in New Zealand for killing a pregnant woman, reported.
The Indian student who is known only as Akash was sentenced on Tuesday in the High Court in Auckland after he pleaded guilty to the murder of 22-year-old Gurpreet Kaur.
Crown prosecutor Gareth Kayes told the court that the defendant had bought methamphetamine on the morning he committed the murder. The court was also told that he had been taking medication to deal with psychotic episodes in India.
When Kaur’s body was recovered in April this year, it had nine stab wounds and twenty cuts.
“You stabbed her with a knife you had in the car in the scalp, face, neck, chest and abdomen and cut her jugular. You stabbed her five times in the abdomen, the deepest to her mid abdomen,” he said.
Akash’s lawyer told the court that the defendant had formed a strong bond with Kaur and they had tattooed each other's names on their wrists.
The court heard that Akash believed he was the father of Kaur’s unborn child. But on the morning of the murder, he came to know that was not true.
Medical evidence suggested Kaur was 7-10 weeks pregnant when she was murdered.
The judge while sentencing him described the murder as cruel, brutal and callous.
"You knew she was pregnant and stabbed her most deeply and often in [the] abdomen," the judge said.
Akash must spend at least 17 years in prison and will be deported at the completion of his sentence.
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