SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): A woman who took part in a conspiracy to abuse four-year-old Megan Khung alongside the girl’s mother and the mother’s boyfriend was sentenced to 13 years’ jail on Nov 13.
Nouvelle Chua Ruoshi, 36, who has a daughter, also helped her two friends dispose of Megan’s body after the girl died from a punch on Feb 22, 2020.
The trio burned the body in a custom-made metal barrel at a car workshop on May 8, 2020. Megan’s ashes were never recovered.
Chua is the third and final person to be jailed over the ill-treatment of Megan, who suffered physical and emotional abuse for more than a year before she died.
Upon hearing the sentence, Chua cried, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. She looked at her relatives and friends sitting in the public gallery. They declined to speak to the media.
In April 2025, Megan’s mother, Foo Li Ping, 31, was sentenced to 19 years’ jail.
Foo’s boyfriend, Wong Shi Xiang, 40, who threw the fatal punch, was sentenced to 30 years’ jail and 17 strokes of the cane. He also faced drug-related charges.
In sentencing Chua, Justice S. Mohan said that while she did not physically abuse Megan, she filmed the abuse, taunted the girl, instigated Foo and was even entertained.
Chua filmed Megan being humiliated on at least six occasions, including when the child was naked. These acts showed extreme depravity on her part, said the High Court judge.
The judge rejected her attempt to portray filming the abuse as less heinous than physical abuse.
He said: “Her recording of the abuses, her failure to intervene and her continued presence transformed her from a mere bystander to an enabler of, and participant in, the wanton acts of cruelty that Megan was forced to endure.”
The judge added: “Ms Chua chose complicity and her depraved, sadistic amusement over her conscience.”
He declined to give Chua the full 30% sentencing discount for pleading guilty.
“In cases concerning egregious abuses of children, it is imperative that the court sends the strongest possible signal to the public that any persons involved in a child suffering abuse will be met with the full force of the law,” the judge said.
Chua’s lawyer, Thangavelu, who goes by one name, told the judge before the sentence was passed that a letter from Chua had been submitted to the court. Its contents were not read out.
Before officers escorted Chua away, Justice Mohan told her: “I have read your letter. You are strongly encouraged to use your time in prison to reflect on your actions.
“I see some encouragement that you have acknowledged your wrongdoing and that you wish to change. So I encourage you to use your time in prison usefully to make yourself a better person when you come out.”
Chua pleaded guilty on Oct 26 to three charges: one for conspiring with the couple to abuse Megan, one for the intentional disposal of Megan’s corpse, and one for consumption of methamphetamine.
Three other charges for conspiracy to abuse Megan were considered during sentencing.
Start of abuse
In 2017, after the relationship between Megan’s parents broke down, Foo and Megan went to live with Foo’s mother.
Foo and Wong became a couple in late 2018.
In January 2019, they moved into a rented condominium unit. Megan continued to live with her grandmother but stayed with the couple on some weekends.
They began caning her between late February 2019 and early March 2019 whenever she urinated on the bed and sofa.
Staff at Megan’s pre-school saw the bruises on her face and body and warned them in March 2019 that physical abuse would be referred to the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).
In July 2019, Chua and her daughter frequently stayed over at the couple’s unit on weekends. Megan was present during most of these visits.
Foo withdrew Megan from pre-school in September 2019, and the girl began living with the couple that month.
Wong caned Megan at least once a week on average, occasionally slapping and punching her.
Foo did not stop him and sometimes joined in.
Chua saw the injuries but did not inform the authorities or seek medical help for the child.
She once dressed Megan in long-sleeved shirts and pants to hide the couple’s abuse.
Chua occasionally took part in the emotional abuse and recorded the incidents on her mobile phone.
Once, she told Foo to make Megan eat her mucus because the crying girl was hungry. Foo blew her nose into a handkerchief and forced it into her daughter’s mouth.
Chua also filmed Foo slapping Megan and putting a soiled diaper over her head. Foo was angry the girl did not tell her that her diaper was full.
Chua was present when Wong forced Megan to eat food from the bin because Megan had offered food to Chua’s daughter.
From January 2020, the abuse intensified.
The couple starved Megan to prevent her from defecating around the unit.
They forced Megan to be naked at home to prevent her clothes from being stained with blood from her wounds.
They also made her sleep in a planter box on the balcony, which faced the afternoon sun, and Megan suffered from heat stroke on one occasion.
Chua did not stop the couple from locking Megan in the planter box and filmed her inside it.
No medical help
Once, Wong hit Megan until her jaw became crooked. Instead of taking the child to a doctor, Foo looked up how to fix a dislocated jaw online.
When Chua asked Foo about Megan’s jaw, Foo said Wong had hit her.
Wong tried to fix Megan’s jaw by pushing it back into place, but it remained crooked.
Despite seeing Megan in an emaciated state and knowing the abuse was escalating, Chua did not take her to a doctor or alert the authorities.
After midnight on Feb 22, 2020, Chua arrived at the unit and Wong said he had hit Megan very badly.
Chua saw Megan on the bedroom floor saying her stomach hurt.
When the couple dismissed this as a bid for attention, Chua ignored Megan and joined Foo and Wong in the living room to take drugs.
Several hours later, Chua told the couple Megan was not moving.
Foo noticed some vomit beside Megan with clear membrane and black contents.
The trio tried to wake Megan, but she was unresponsive.
They performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her. Wong fetched a 30-cm tube for them to blow air into Megan’s mouth.
Even though Wong found a defibrillator near their unit, he did not bring it back, afraid that removing it would trigger alarms and lead the authorities to Megan.
Foo realised her daughter was dead and sent a message in the trio’s WhatsApp group chat, “Megan is gone”.
After Wong returned to the flat, he took two wires and taped a metal chopstick to each end, which he inserted into a three-pin power source.
Wong placed one wire on Megan’s chest and the other wire below it to resuscitate her, to no avail.
Wong told Foo and Chua to smoke drugs and blow the smoke through a tube into Megan’s mouth, to see if she would respond.
They did so, but Megan remained unresponsive.
Silent till the end
Chua did not seek help because she feared her own wrongdoing would come to light.
Over the next few months, the couple stayed in hotels and serviced apartments and discussed how to dispose of Megan’s body. Chua was aware of the discussions.
On the day of the incineration, she accompanied Foo and Wong to retrieve the body from the unit and joined them in burning incense paper in the barrel.
On July 20, 2020, Megan’s father, Khung Wei Nan, filed a police report saying he was concerned about Megan’s whereabouts and safety.
Khung, a businessman and content creator known as Simonboy, said he last saw them in February 2017, after which he was incarcerated for drug offences.
Foo, Wong and Chua were arrested on July 24, 2020.
After Foo and Wong were sentenced, MSF said it would conduct a further review of the responses of all the parties involved in handling the case.
A report released in October 2025 identified lapses at multiple points across the system.
This included a Child Protective Service officer failing to log calls from the girl’s pre-school seeking help and police officers not following procedures after Megan’s grandmother reported her missing on Jan 17, 2020.
A new MSF unit was set up to analyse data from law enforcement and other agencies to flag potential cases of child abuse earlier. -- The Straits Times/ANN
