Jennifer Mui Len Chin: Mum who stabbed daughter’s secret boyfriend says she was ‘dumbstruck’ and ‘terrified’

The Perth mum who stabbed her daughter’s secret boyfriend was “dumbstruck” and “terrified” to have found the teen seemingly naked in her home — and had to protect her children “at all costs”. Jennifer Mui Len Chin, 49, is on trial in the District Court of WA, charged with one count of doing an act causing bodily harm with intent after stabbing the youth four times in October 2023. It is not disputed that the boy took up the girl’s invitation to sneak into the Parkwood property and the then 14-year-olds had sex in the front bedroom. The pair, who are now 16, had concealed their six month-long relationship because the girl was not yet allowed to have one, raised with strict Christian values. Taking the witness stand on Thursday, Ms Chin said she was at the rear of the home watching TV and believed her daughter was doing homework in her nearby bedroom. But the accountant became suspicious. And when she tried to enter the front room, her daughter blocked the way, but she pushed through. Under questioning by her lawyer Mark Andrews, Ms Chin said she spotted shoes despite the family custom of leaving them outdoors — and movement under the bed covers. “Panic set in .... there’s shouldn’t be anyone else in the house,” she said. “I said in a loud voice, ‘Who’s under the blanket?’ No one answered me.” She said her daughter was “rambling something” about the stranger being a homeless person. Ms Chin said she feared he could be armed. “I was dumbstruck ... I was running on panic, adrenaline and shock,” Ms Chin said. She and the boy had a brief tug-of-war with the bed covers that she pulled down to his waist, revealing he was shirtless. It took “all my might”, she said. Meanwhile, Ms Chin’s six-year-old son emerged and was scared by the ruckus but she asked him to fetch a knife from the kitchen. “I’m alone with two kids on my house and there’s an intruder, naked for all I know,” Ms Chin said. “I thought ‘I have to protect my kids at whatever cost’. “He kept saying ‘sorry’ and that made me terrified.” She said his apologies may have been for something he had already done — like sexually assault her daughter — or something he planned to do. Ms Chin said she and the boy grabbed each other’s wrists during the tussle and she realised he was stronger, estimating he was aged in his late teens or early 20s, based on his large footwear. At the front entrance as the boy tried to flee, Ms Chin said she inflicted two quick jabs because the boy did not retreat after the first. She claimed he had walked towards her looking “confident and cocky”, and she was worried he would assault her or worse still, her little boy. “I was just scared of the whole thing. I don’t go around stabbing people,” Ms Chin said. “I thought he was going to fight me ... I don’t know what kids are up to nowadays. “I still think it’s surreal.” Prosecutor Chadd Graham put to Ms Chin that the possibility of the boy being her daughter’s boyfriend was “very much present in your mind”. The mother admitted asking the girl specifically, just a fortnight earlier, after the teen raised the topic of missed periods. “She said no. She said ‘don’t worry mum, I know what I’m doing’,” Ms Chin said. “I trusted her. “I wasn’t thinking that way at all.” Ms Chin conceded it would be upsetting to know her daughter had had sex at such a young age. But she audibly scoffed when Mr Graham suggested she was angry, wanted to punish the boy and chased him before attacking. The defence case has now closed, with jury deliberations possibly taking place on Monday after closing addresses and directions from Judge Belinda Lonsdale on Friday.