Jennifer Mui Len Chin: Mum who stabbed daughter’s secret boyfriend after Parkwood home sex gets suspended term

A mum who stabbed her daughter’s secret boyfriend after they had sex in the family’s Parkwood home has been spared an immediate jail term for the sake of her young son. Jennifer Mui Len Chin admitted jabbing the teen with a kitchen knife at least two times as he tried to flee the property in October 2023. The boy suffered chest and shoulder injuries, and a collapsed lung. Chin argued at her District Court of WA trial in August that she believed the teen — who she’d never met previously — was an intruder. That defence allows the occupant of a premises to take action they believe is necessary to prevent unlawful entry or the commission of an offence — but the grounds for that belief must be reasonable. The petite 49-year-old chartered accountant said the boy posed a threat as he was tall and felt strong when he grabbed her wrists during a tussle after she discovered the teens post-tryst. But prosecutor Chadd Graham said the slightly built lad was just trying to leave. “This was violence against a child,” Mr Graham said in sentencing submissions on Monday. “His belief at the time was that he was going to die. “He still has permanent scars both on his body and on his mind. He still has nightmares ... he no longer feels like the person he was before. “What happened that night has changed his life.” The jury found Chin guilty of causing bodily harm with intent after deliberating for three hours. Judge Belinda Lonsdale said Chin would have been aware that the boy had been invited into the home by her daughter as she did not appear scared. The then 14-year-olds hid their six month-long relationship because the girl was not yet allowed to have one, raised with strict Christian values. When Chin’s six-year-old son came to see what was happening, she made him fetch the knife from the kitchen and he was crying during the heated confrontation. The daughter warned “Ma, you will be the one that goes to jail for this”, the judge noted. Chin trapped the boyfriend at the locked front door as he tried to flee, remarking: “You have nowhere to go”. “He was apologetic at all relevant times and plainly trying to escape,” Judge Lonsdale said, finding the teen’s injuries could have proved fatal if not treated. “I suspect you have convinced yourself that your conduct was justified. “He posed no obvious threat to you or anyone in your home.” Chin felt anger, shock and outrage, and while her daughter’s conduct was “profoundly disrespectful”, the stabbing was not necessary. “That you let your anger spill over to violence was unacceptable,” Judge Lonsdale said. Defence counsel Mark Andrews submitted that his client’s son suffered greatly being abruptly separated from his mother from October 2023, when he was placed with his paternal grandparents. The now eight-year-old was reunited with his mum and dad in March after giving pre-recorded evidence for the trial. The daughter, now 16, was also removed from the family home and remains with the grandparents. She had offered to reconcile with her mother, which Chin had so far rejected, Judge Lonsdale said, urging her to reconsider. Arguing for the suspended sentence, Mr Andrews said Chin had “already suffered a lot”, becoming “a virtual recluse in her own home” after being “thrust from her previous vanilla life as a suburban mum” to newspaper headlines. Judge Lonsdale said it was a rare and unusual case where a jail term of three years, suspended for two years, was justified. Chin was spared jail “by the very narrowest of margins” due to the risk to her son’s mental health, the judge said. “He is an innocent victim who has already suffered ... further separation would be damaging,” she said. Outside court, the teenage boy’s father said he was disappointed with the sentence and urged the State to appeal.