According to Singapore's Shin Min Daily News, a woman in Singapore was persistently harassed by her “horror ex-lover” after divorce. Not only did he secretly install a location-tracking app on her phone to monitor her whereabouts, but he also lay in wait downstairs from her residence. He lured her to the parking lot, pushed her into his car, and attacked her with a utility knife, stabbing her neck and back. This ultimately landed him in jail.
The accused, Xu Hezhong (46), faced three charges: intentionally causing hurt with a dangerous weapon, theft, and breaching the Protection from Harassment Act. He pleaded guilty to two of them, with the other taken into consideration by the judge. He was sentenced to 25 months’ imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane.
The victim is his ex-wife (39 years old). According to the case details, the couple married in 2007 and have three children. After marital issues led to their divorce, they sold their matrimonial home and moved to rented apartments. By the end of 2024, the ex-wife moved with the three children to live at her brother's house.
Despite their separation, the accused insisted on picking up and dropping off his ex-wife and children at work and school. During their separation, the accused repeatedly tried to monitor her, even installing an app on her phone to track her location without her knowledge. Once the ex-wife discovered it, she immediately deleted the app and warned him she would call the police if he did it again.
In April 2025, the accused learned that his ex-wife was planning a trip to Japan and repeatedly questioned who she was going with, but the ex-wife did not respond. On May 7, when she left for Changi Airport, she noticed the accused’s BMW parked in the garage.
While in Japan, the accused constantly questioned her whereabouts, but she ignored him, and he continued to harass her. When the ex-wife returned to Singapore on May 15, she tried to avoid him at the airport, but was blocked by him outside her residence. With her brother’s help, she managed to escape.
On the morning of May 19, the day of the incident at about 7:30 a.m., the ex-wife left her residence for work. The accused was again waiting for her downstairs, offering her a ride to work. After being refused, he followed her and claimed he had arranged with her mother to return a stolen gold bracelet that day, luring his ex-wife to Carpark 160 at River Valley Bay.
While talking on the phone with her mother to confirm, upon arriving at the parking lot, the accused suddenly snatched her phone and threw it into the back seat of the car. When the ex-wife entered the car to retrieve her phone, the accused pushed her inside from behind. As she struggled and called for help, the accused pulled out a utility knife, pressed it to her cheek, pinned her down, and stabbed her multiple times in her neck and slashed her back and shoulder.
At the time of the attack, her mother was still on the phone and heard her daughter shout, “What are you doing?” The accused replied, “You’re dead!” and the call was cut off.
The mother immediately called her son for help. During the struggle, the ex-wife realized her smartwatch was vibrating—it was her brother calling. She answered through the watch and shouted that she was on the fourth floor of the parking garage.
The brother rushed to the parking lot, immediately pulled the accused off her, and snatched away the knife to subdue him. Despite this, the accused wrapped his legs around the ex-wife until the brother's maid arrived to help, after which the ex-wife was able to break free.
The ex-wife was then sent to the hospital for treatment. She suffered multiple injuries to her neck, shoulder, and upper back, stayed in the hospital for three days, and was given five days’ medical leave.
The accused was arrested on May 19, 2025, and was subsequently charged in court.