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A Filipino woman died after being stabbed repeatedly in a frenzied attack, a court heard yesterday.

Roselyn Reyes Pascua was stabbed 10 times in the chest and abdomen, once in the neck and twice in the vagina.

The body of the 30-year-old, who is believed to have worked as a prostitute, was found lying in a pool of blood in a partitioned room at Peony Mansion in Bencoolen Street, in the early hours of March 15 last year.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Andre Jumabhoy described the attack as "nasty, brutish and short."

He was speaking at the murder trial of Indian national Bijukumar Remadevi Nair Gopinathan, which began yesterday. Gopinathan does not deny stabbing Pascua, but claims he acted under grave and serious provocation.

A forensic pathologist told the court that Pascua died from excessive bleeding from a stab wound to her heart, but two other injuries could also have killed her. Wee Keng Poh said the victim also sustained a very serious neck wound and a deep incision in her abdomen, both of which could also have been fatal.

Wee, of the Health Sciences Authority, said the 3cm-deep cut to Pascua's neck prevented her from crying out for help as she bled to death.

She also suffered bruising to the face and cuts to her lips. Such injuries were consistent with her being punched repeatedly in the face, said DPP Jumabhoy.

Pascua arrived here on Feb 9 last year. Her social visit visa was to expire in March, but she extended it for another month.

DPP Jumabhoy showed the court still images from closed-circuit television footage showing Gopinathan entering the lift of Peony Mansion with Ms Pascua at about 7.10 p.m. on March 14.

Only the ground floor lift lobby had a CCTV camera, and nine minutes later it showed the shipyard worker coming out of the lift. He went out by the rear exit of the building, and a camera at the nearby Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts caught him walking towards Middle Road.

At about 3am, Azlee Thaib, the tenant of the room opposite Pascua's, was woken by loud voices. He went to check and found two Filipino women crying outside Pascua's room. Its door was slightly ajar, and when he pushed it open he saw her body on the floor.

Azlee, a 48-year-old driver, called the building caretaker, who summoned the police. The weapon was never found.

DPP Jumabhoy told the court that when arrested three days later, Gopinathan was carrying Pascua's mobile phone and some bloodstained money. A Western Union receipt for a money transfer to India and a large amount of cash were also found on him. The court was not told the amounts.

The accused is defended by assigned lawyers Shashi Nathan and Raphael Louis. They hope to convince Justice Choo Han Teck that Gopinathan acted under provocation during the course of a fight between him and Pascua.

If the defense lawyers are successful, the charge could be reduced to culpable homicide, and Gopinathan could face a jail term. But Dr Wee said he had found no defensive wounds on Pascua's body. There were also no marks on her arms and legs to indicate that she had been involved in a scuffle, he added.

If convicted of murder, Gopinathan will be sentenced to hang.

The trial continues today.

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.