Anu Singh

Anu Singh
Born (1972-09-03) 3 September 1972
Nationality Australian
Alma mater University of Sydney
Criminal charge Manslaughter of Joe Cinque
Criminal penalty 10 years imprisonment
Criminal status Released

Dr. Anu Singh (born 3 September 1972) is an Australian of Indian descent. In 1999 she was convicted of the 1997 manslaughter of her then boyfriend Joe Cinque by lacing his coffee with rohypnol then injected him with heroin. Subsequent to her release, Singh has undertaken criminology research. Her story has been portrayed in literature and in film.

Death of Joe Cinque

External audio
Joe Cinque is Dead, Late Night Live interviews with Singh and Cinque's parents, first broadcast 23 September 2004.[1]

In 1997 Singh and Cinque were living together in Canberra while she was a law student at the Australian National University. During the 1998 trial, a friend of Singh testified that Singh had been obsessed with her body since 1991 and had briefly taken Ipecac after Cinque mentioned it, something she was later angry with him for. In May 1997 she told a friend that she wanted to kill a number of people, including Cinque and her doctors.[2]

Singh's close friend Madhavi Rao invited acquaintances to two dinner parties in October 1997 and told them that a terrible crime would be committed.[3] Witness Sanjeeva Tennekoon reported that the first dinner party on 24 October was normal and that Singh and Cinque appeared loving.[4] However, another witness told the court that Rao had told her afterwards that Singh had tried to kill Cinque that evening but did not deliver a sufficient dose, and that the witness had threatened to go to the police.[5] The day after the first dinner party, Singh and Rao went to a friend, Len Mancini, and told him they had given Cinque drugs the previous evening.[6]

Cinque died on 26 October 1997, the morning after the second dinner party. The toxicology reports showed high levels of heroin and Rohypnol in his body.[7]

Witness Ross Manley claimed that Singh bought further heroin from Manley's friend on the morning of 26 October.[8] Singh called an ambulance for Cinque at 12:10pm on 26 October, and the ambulance officers found that he had had a cardiac arrest.[8][9] She made it difficult for the ambulance to respond quickly, giving false information about where she lived.[10] Singh told police at the scene that she had administered drugs to Cinque.[11] Police reported that when they arrived at the scene, Singh was hysterical and struggled with police and ambulance officers when they took her away from Cinque's body.[12]

Trial

Singh first appeared in court on 28 October 1997 charged with murder. She had told police that she had injected Cinque with heroin so that he would not interfere with a suicide attempt.[13] Madhavi Rao was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and released on bail on 5 November.[14] The prosecutor noted that both Singh and Rao had been indiscreet about their actions.[3] Singh applied for bail in December, and a psychiatrist presented evidence of a personality disorder.[15] Singh and Rao were tried jointly in October and November 1998, but this trial was aborted on 11 November, with Justice Ken Crispin saying that one of the pieces of evidence was problematic as it was unclear as to which of Singh or Rao it was admissible against.[16] For the second trial, Singh elected to stand trial by judge alone, forgoing a jury. Justice Crispin ruled that Singh and Rao should be tried separately in the interest of fairness.[17]

“There’s no rational motivation at all. I was mentally unwell, and I still grapple with that. I still grapple with the whys. One of the psychiatrists mentioned a state of disassociation, perhaps, like disassociated from reality. I don’t know. There’s no rational explanation."
Singh, speaking in 2016[18]

In her 1999 trial, Singh's defence presented evidence that Singh was mentally ill and had diminished responsibility.[19] The court was told that Anu believed she was dying from a muscle wasting disease, complained of "not being able to feel her head on her body" and was bulimic.[18] The prosecutors called an expert witness to testify that Singh had appeared rational and assertive on the night she was arrested.[20] On 23 April Crispin J found Singh guilty of manslaughter[21] and the following day sentenced her to ten years' imprisonment with a minimum four years non-parole period.[22] Cinque's mother was deeply unhappy with the short sentence.[23] In Rao's second trial, she was charged with murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, and administering a stupefying drug[24] and was acquitted of all charges.[25]

Singh was released on parole in October 2001 after four years imprisonment including time she had served on remand since 1997.[18] She was returned to jail in April 2004 after breaching her parole conditions by smoking marijuana[26] and re-released on 5 August 2004 after challenging her re-imprisonment on a technicality.[27][28]

After release

Singh has completed a masters in criminology at Sydney University, having attended classes on day release from Emu Plains Correctional Centre.[26][29]

In June 2005, concern was expressed in the New South Wales Parliament about Singh's employment with the Cabramatta Community Centre.[30] The public were reassured that Singh was not employed to distribute clean injecting equipment and that her employment was on a time-limited project.[31]

In 2010 she began research at the University of Sydney Faculty of Law,[32] and in 2012 was awarded a doctorate for her thesis Offending Women: Toward a Greater Understanding of Women’s Pathways Into and Out of Crime in Australia. It outlines "five major pathways that led [female prisoners] to crime: unstable upbringings, sexual and physical abuse, drug use, economic marginality and mental illness".[33] An edited version was released as a self-published ebook in 2016.[18]

In literature and other adaptations

Singh's actions have been the subject of several

References

  1. 1 2 Adams, Phillip (2004-09-23). "Joe Cinque is Dead". Late Night Live (ABC Radio National). Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  2. ↑ Armitage, Liz (24 October 1998). "Accused Spoke Of Rampage, Court Told". The Canberra Times.
  3. 1 2 Armitage, Liz (5 November 1997). "ACT Law Students "conspire To Kill"". The Canberra Times.
  4. ↑ Armitage, Liz (6 November 1998). "Singh And Boyfriend Appeared To Be Happy Couple: Witness".
  5. ↑ Armitage, Liz (7 November 1998). "Witness Tells Court Of Murder Plan". The Canberra Times.
  6. ↑ Armitage, Liz (11 November 1998). "Accused Wanted To Kill Herself: Friend". The Canberra Times.
  7. ↑ Armitage, Liz (31 December 1997). "Passions Parade Before The Bench". The Canberra Times.
  8. 1 2 Armitage, Liz (29 October 1998). "Singh "nervous" Buying Heroin, Court Hears". The Canberra Times.
  9. ↑ "Man's Death 'Not To Plan'". The Newcastle Herald. 21 October 1998.
  10. ↑ Whittington, Josh (13 February 1998). "20-minute 000 call". The Daily Telegraph (Australia) (News Corporation).
  11. ↑ Armitage, Liz (23 April 1998). "Drug Death: Law Student To Stand Trial". The Canberra Times. And I had some heroin and I just kept pumping it into him.
  12. ↑ Whittington, Josh (22 October 1998). "A Very Broad Smile: Officer Tells of Accused's Action". The Daily Telegraph (Australia) (News Corporation).
  13. ↑ "Woman On Murder Charge". The Canberra Times. 28 October 1997.
  14. ↑ Armitage, Liz (6 November 1997). "Bail For Student Linked To Party Murder". The Canberra Times.
  15. ↑ "Murder Case Bail Decision Adjourned". The Canberra Times. 5 December 1997.
  16. ↑ "Law student trial aborted". The Daily Telegraph (Australia). 12 November 1998.
  17. ↑ "Murder Accused To Face Trial By Judge". The Canberra Times. 17 November 1998.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 Gorman, Ginger (2016-01-14). "‘What I did was a horrible thing’: Anu Singh seeks atonement for killing Joe Cinque". News.com.au. News Limited. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  19. ↑ Armitage, Liz (13 April 1999). "Defendant Vain, Self-centred: Expert Witness". The Canberra Times.
  20. ↑ Armitage, Liz (15 April 1999). "Singh Was "rational" On Night Charged". The Canberra Times.
  21. ↑ "Impaired, guilty of manslaughter.". The Canberra Times. 23 April 1999.
  22. ↑ Ludlow, Mark (25 June 1998). "Quick Parole For Killer". The Canberra Times.
  23. ↑ Hamilton, Fiona (24 June 1999). "ACT - Woman who killed boyfriend may be free in 2001". Australian Associated Press.
  24. ↑ Dickins, Jim (11 December 1999). "A Dark, Twisted Saga Ends With Acquittal". The Canberra Times.
  25. ↑ Moscaritolo, Maria (11 December 1999). "Cleared of heroin murder". The Daily Telegraph (Australia) (News Corporation).
  26. 1 2 3 Wyndham, Susan (9 August 2004). "On death and madness". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  27. ↑ Jayne-Maree Sedgman (reporter) (2004-08-06). "Another chapter in Canberra murder story: Anu Singh speaks". The World Today. ABC. ABC Local Radio.
  28. 1 2 Neill, Rosemary (30 May 2005). "Of sins and needles". The Australian (News Corporation).
  29. ↑ Devine, Miranda (5 June 2005). "Her new career's to die for". The Sun Herald (Fairfax Media). Retrieved 2008-05-23.
  30. ↑ Oldfield, David (2005). "Ms Anu Singh and needle distribution program". New South Wales Legislative Council Hansard: Questions without notice. Parliament of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 2006-02-18. Retrieved 2006-06-28.
  31. ↑ New South Wales Minister for Health (2005). "Ms Anu Singh and needle distribution program". New South Wales Legislative Council Hansard: Questions without notice; Deferred answers. Parliament of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 18 February 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-28.
  32. ↑ "Killer University of Sydney student Anu Singh writing thesis on crime". News.com.au. News Limited. 2010-12-12. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  33. ↑ Anu, Singh (2012). "Offending Women: Toward a Greater Understanding of Women’s Pathways Into and Out of Crime in Australia". Sydney eScholarship Repository. University of Sydney. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  34. ↑ Kretowicz, Ewa; Macdonald, Emma (2012-05-15). "Infamous Canberra killing to be made into film". Canberra Times. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
  35. ↑ Usher, Robin (8 August 2007). "Joe Cinque's alteration: remaking a tragic story". The Age (Fairfax Media). Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  36. ↑ Smith, Amanda (2007-07-29). "Criminology". Radio National. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
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