SINGAPORE: A 67-year-old man who starved and tortured a 19-year-old woman at his Clementi flat for more than two months was sentenced on Monday (May 25) to 14 years and 11 months’ jail for causing her death.
The acts of abuse allegedly also involved the victim’s older brother and his married girlfriend, who are facing murder charges.
Huang Baoying died on May 5, 2021, after enduring what prosecutors described as “horrifying and senseless torture” in a flat at Block 602 Clementi West Street 1.
Lim Peng Tiong, the flat’s owner, had pleaded guilty on Feb 9 to a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder over her death.
Huang died from a combination of severe malnutrition, sepsis and extensive blunt force trauma.
She weighed only 27.6kg at her autopsy, having lost 43 per cent of her body weight over 11 months from June 2020, when her weight was last recorded as 48.8kg.
Lim’s sentence included a six-month term in lieu of caning. He cannot be caned as he is above the age of 50.
In sentencing, High Court judge Pang Khang Chau noted that among the three accused persons, Lim had the least involvement in the abuse that led to the victim’s death and that he himself was subject to abuse and coercion by the two other accomplices.
The prosecution had sought a sentence of 20 years’ jail for Lim to reflect his role in the abuse.
The defence had asked for a jail term of 11 years, contending that Lim was a follower who had been “brainwashed” by his accomplices.
Lim, Huang, and her brother Huang Bocan, 34, were members of a multi-level marketing (MLM) “club” that sold nutritional products.
Huang Bocan’s girlfriend, Chee Mei Wan, 46, was their “coach”.
She owned a company selling Herbalife products, which she called a club, where members pay to get discounts on products and could also sell the goods to their own clients.
Chee had introduced a system of punishment to “correct” the bad habits of club members that she felt would negatively affect sales, which in turn would affect her commission.
The disciplinary regime escalated into full-blown torture and physical abuse for Huang.
Between Feb 16, 2021, and May 4, 2021, Huang was deprived of food, chained in a toilet at the flat, and brutally beaten.
In her final hours, she was repeatedly beaten with a wooden pole, forced to sit upright with her hands tied and raised above her head, had salt rubbed into an open wound, and was drenched under running water for 15 minutes.
The court was earlier told that Huang was about 16 to 17 years old when she and her brother joined the club in 2018.
The siblings left home in July 2020 and went to live with Lim after falling out with their parents, who refused to continue buying the products.
Chee joined them a few weeks later following a dispute with her husband.
According to Lim, Chee introduced a system of fines in October 2020 to correct his bad habits, which she believed had affected sales.
After a month, the system evolved into a regime where those who made mistakes had to perform exercises such as squats or hold a stress position with their legs bent and their backs against a wall.
Huang was punished the most because Chee and Huang Bocan thought she lacked discipline and motivation, and performed poorly in product sales.
From February 2021, Huang was denied food whenever she made a mistake. Things worsened in April 2021, when she was deprived of food for days and was allowed only to drink water.
In one incident, she was hit 240 times.
One of the beatings resulted in a wound on her calf that did not heal properly.
In April 2021, the four attended a church service, where Huang dozed off. After they returned to the flat, she was slapped about 130 times.
Huang was confined in a toilet for prolonged periods, under the guise of giving her a quiet place to reflect on her mistakes.
She was chained to the railing beside the toilet bowl.
On the night of May 4, 2021, Chee allegedly wanted to punish her for lying about whether she had done her squats.
When Huang remained quiet during the beating, Chee and Huang Bocan saw this as defiance.
The trio allegedly tried several ways to get a reaction out of her, including holding her head in a basin of iced water.
Salt was poured on the wound on her calf, and she was tied up under a tap and drenched with water.
After midnight on May 5, the trio tried to wake her, but to no avail.
When they eventually decided to call for an ambulance, they agreed to lie to the authorities.
Evidence of the abuse was allegedly deleted from their phones.
Huang was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, who reported the case to the police after they saw the bruises on her body.
The next day, Huang Bocan was charged with causing grievous hurt to Huang.
Lim was arrested on May 11, and has been in custody since. - The Straits Times/ANN
