A retired aircraft technician has spent the past three months at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) as a voluntary patient after serving a two-year prison term for killing his wife of 36 years during a psychotic episode.

But Kong Peng Yee, 69, is now facing an appeal that may see him behind bars again.

Although his psychiatric condition is in remission with medication, Mr Kong requires long-term psychiatric follow-up and close monitoring, according to an IMH report.

His two daughters, who were "caught unawares" by the unexpectedly short sentence, were not ready to have him stay with them, the three-judge Court of Appeal said yesterday, during an appeal by prosecutors for a longer sentence.

Mr Kong's sentence - for slashing Madam Wong Chik Yeok, 63, first using a knife and thena chopper, at their Sengkang home on March 13, 2016 - was the shortest ever meted out for intentional culpable homicide here.

Prosecutors had sought nine years' jail but on Oct 16 last year, Mr Kong was given two years' jail by the High Court after he pleaded guilty to a charge of culpable homicide.

As the prison term was backdated to the date of his arrest, he was released from jail on the same day, given the usual one-third remission for good behaviour.

Prosecutors had indicated in the High Court that same day that they would be filing an appeal.

Yesterday, commenting on the family's current arrangement, Judge of Appeal Tay Yong Kwang noted that it was a very difficult situation. "If my dad had done something against my mother, I