A widowed mother of two has been committed to an indeterminate term in a mental institution for the brutal killing and mutilation of her employer.

Appearing confused and disoriented, 36-year-old domestic helper San Jose Maria Jestle Guarin pleaded guilty to manslaughter on diminished responsibility Friday for the slaying of her 47-year-old employer Kei Yin-lam.

Under caution, Guarin told police, "I chopped her because she took away my body and soul."

In police interviews, Guarin told officers a resident of a neighboring flat had stolen her brain and placed her under hypnosis.

Ruling that she be remanded to the Siu Lam Psychiatric Center for an indeterminate period, Court of First Instance Judge Peter Line said, "The attack was ferocious and reflected at the time your mental illness. You were suffering from schizophrenia and at the time you were floridly psychotic."

Referring to psychiatric reports prepared over the past year, Line added the commitment was determined by the "persistence of Guarin's symptoms 11 months after the onset of treatment," and "it is a fact your condition and prognosis are unpredictable." He said that making a court judgment establishing a fixed release date would be impossible.

Guarin's counsel Paul Loughram said, "This is a tragic case from every view point. (Guarin), overcome by a sudden and powerful schizophrenia that so occupied her mind, she wasn't herself. The matter should be approached by way of remedial steps to repair her mental health."

Visiting Consultant Psychiatrist at Siu Lam Henry Yuen said Guarin was probably ill two months prior to the killing, and suffered from delusions and hallucinations that impaired her mental responsibility.

Prosecutor Isaac Tam told the court a security guard at Kei's Happy Valley residence, Illumination Terrace, responded to a noise complaint and found Kei's gate locked but the door ajar in the early morning of June 11, 2009.

Seeing the silhouettes of two people, he called out. No one answered. The door, stained with blood was shut by someone from inside.

There were screams from inside the dwelling so Tam said he called police, who arrived at 5:04 am. Officers set up an observation post from another building and noted a dark figure moving about the flat with a shiny object in hand.

Officers in body armor stormed the premises and found Kei lying on the floor badly mutilated by multiple chop wounds. Guarin, covered with blood, had moved into the master's bedroom.

Police subdued Guarin after an initial struggle and found a blood stained chopper wrapped in a pair of white pants on the window sill.

Guarin told police the individual who had hypnotized her said she should knock on Kei's bedroom door and throw her employer out of the flat.

Guarin then claimed she was directed to cut out Kei's heart. The accused admitted taking the chopper from the kitchen but could not recall how many times she had struck her victim.

She said she was then directed to wrap the chopper in a pair of white pants - since black would rouse bad spirits residing in Kei's remains.

Line noted the victim, who lived alone, and Guarin's relationship had been mostly amicable save for some complaints about the latter's cooking.

After losing her husband of nearly a decade in 2008, Guarin left the Philippines and came to Hong Kong to join her mother. She has two sons, aged 7 and 9.

China Daily

(HK Edition 07/03/2010 page1)