PUTRAJAYA: He was a drug addict and jobless. His father was a prostate cancer patient and bedridden.
When the older man scolded him for consuming drugs at home, You Poh Khoon (pic) flew into a fit of rage and killed him by severing his head with a machete. The 52-year-old then chopped up his father’s body into six parts and buried the head in the backyard. The other body parts were dumped in a 1.5m-deep sewage hole.
Yesterday, You escaped the gallows. The Federal Court commuted his death sentence to 35 years in jail after allowing his appeal against the sentence.
A three-judge panel chaired by Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah ruled that there was merit in You’s appeal.
In a unanimous decision, Justice Mohamad Zabidin set aside the death sentence imposed by the High Court and replaced it with a jail sentence.
“The appellant should be given a chance to serve the jail term,” he said.
The apex court ordered You to serve the jail sentence from the date of arrest on Oct 9, 2018.
It also spared the now-58-year-old from whipping due to his age factor, as he is above 50. The other judges on the panel were Federal Court judges Justices Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Abu Bakar Jais.
On May 24, 2022, You was sentenced to death by the High Court after he was found guilty of killing his 74-year-old father, You Su Kim, between 3pm on Oct 8, 2018, and 10.30am the following day in their house in Khatan Baru, Chemor, Ipoh, Perak.
The court heard from You’s lawyer Amir Faliq Mohamad Jamil yesterday that the Attorney General’s chambers had allowed a representation for You to withdraw his appeal against his conviction and for the death sentence to be substituted with a jail sentence.
Amir Faliq told the court that his client was the only one among four siblings who took care of their bedridden father who suffered from prostate cancer.
He said You’s family members were also hopeful that the court would spare him the death sentence as they have already lost their father. You had appealed the High Court’s decision on March 6 last year but lost at the Court of Appeal.
Deputy public prosecutor How May Ling asked the apex court to impose a 30- to 40-year jail sentence, saying that forensic evidence showed there were slash wounds to the neck of the deceased and 15 other injuries that led to the older man’s hands and leg being severed.
After the incident, You was placed under observation at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta, Perak, for 22 days.
A prosecution witness Dr Ian Lloyd Anthony testified during the trial that You was of sound mind at the time of the offence.
