Warning: This article contains distressing details of severe physical abuse.
SINGAPORE: Over several months, a group of three tortured a 19-year-old girl as “punishment”, depriving her of food, beating her brutally and confining her in a toilet for long stretches at a time in a Clementi flat.
The prolonged abuse resulted in the death of Huang Baoying, who had lost 43 per cent of her body weight by the time she died from excessive blunt force trauma and severe malnourishment on May 5, 2021.
Lim Peng Tiong, 66, pleaded guilty on Monday (Feb 9) to one count of culpable homicide not amounting to murder at the High Court.
His co-accused are Huang Bocan, 34, the victim’s elder brother, and Chee Mei Wan, 46. Their cases are still pending before the courts.
The case was delayed by about two hours in court as Lim, dressed in a purple jumpsuit in the dock, repeatedly argued over details in court documents that were interpreted to him in Mandarin.
As the morning session wore on without proceedings beginning, Lim appeared visibly agitated and emotional in the dock. He was seen using his inhaler as he spoke to his lawyers in a heightened tone in Mandarin.
He eventually decided to admit to his charge without qualification.
HOW THE GROUP CAME TO BE
Lim, formerly a machine operator, is unmarried and without children.
The court heard that the parties met in 2018 through Chee Mei Wan’s company, Colourful Nutrifit, which marketed and sold nutritional products.
She called the company a club, with clients receiving discounts for a subscription. Members also sold products to their own clients.
The Huang siblings and Lim joined the club, where Chee was a coach. The victim, then aged between 16 and 17, wanted to lose weight, improve herself and earn money.
The group grew close after spending time together, including travelling to Malaysia to conduct roadshows for the products, and by participating in collective weight loss challenges.
Bocan and Chee began a romantic relationship in September 2018, although court documents stated that Chee had a husband.
The club had a storefront in Clementi, but it closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group began meeting at the siblings’ home so that Bocan could teach Chee how to use social media platforms and Zoom to promote her products.
Eventually, Bocan and his sister had a rift with their father over expenses on the products. Their father felt they were overspending – about S$1,000 (US$788) to S$2,000 a month – on the items.
The siblings then moved into Lim’s home in July 2020. Chee joined them after a dispute with her own husband.
In October 2020, Chee devised a fine system due to Lim’s bad habits, such as dragging his feet when he walked. She felt these affected his marketing and sale of products.
The fines ranged from 50 cents to a few dollars. Lim agreed, believing it would help better himself. But Bocan and his sister were soon subject to the system to correct their habits.
After a month passed, Chee and Bocan felt the fines were ineffective and introduced physical punishments, including exercise and beatings.
Chee was the only one not punished, as she was the “coach”. Baoying was punished the most, and made to perform squats for up to six hours at a time.
Chee felt that Baoying lacked discipline, motivation and had a poor sales performance.
In February 2021, the trio created a WhatsApp chat group to monitor and report Baoying’s “mistakes”.
ESCALATING ABUSE
Eventually, the punishment meted out to Baoying escalated to “full-blown torture and abuse”, the prosecution charged.
The trio restricted Baoying’s food intake, forced her out of the flat on some occasions and confined her in the toilet to “reflect on her mistakes”.
Bocan took control of Baoying’s money and gave her only S$20 to S$30 a week for one meal a day, which was supposed to be what court documents described as “mixed vegetable rice”. This was purportedly to teach her about hunger and to be grateful for her food.
Between January and February 2021, Baoying was also forced out of the home as punishment.
On one occasion, Bocan cut the victim’s hair before chasing her out of the flat to humiliate her, knowing that she loved her long hair. She was then forced to sleep in public.
To punish Baoying for eating food other than “mixed vegetable rice”, Chee suggested confining her in a toilet.
From February to May 2021, Chee and Bocan began confining Baoying in the toilet for prolonged periods, including nearly the whole of March 2021.
She slept and ate in the toilet and her brother told her to sleep sitting up, as Chee felt that only beggars lay on the floor.
After realising that Baoying was leaving the toilet to look for food, Chee instructed Lim to buy a chain and padlock.
Baoying was then chained to a railing in the toilet. As she was able to escape the restraints, Bocan secured the chain more tightly and chained her ankle instead of her wrist after realising the chain hurt her.
In February 2021, the trio also began beating Baoying up to 240 times at one go with a wooden stick, targeting areas such as the back of her calves and thighs. One of these beatings resulted in a wound on the back of her right calf, which never healed.
Chee taught the two men to beat Baoying “properly” by demonstrating on them first to gauge the extent of force they could use.
Baoying would then be beaten when deemed to have misbehaved, including on one occasion when she accepted a blanket and a straw mat from a stranger after being chased out of the flat. She was punished for “behaving like a beggar”.
On another occasion in April 2021, Baoying fell asleep during a church service, which Bocan and Chee also attended. At the flat, Bocan slapped her in the face about 80 times, and Lim slapped her around 50 times.
DAY BEFORE DEATH
By March 2021, Baoying was in a weakened state due to food deprivation and repeated beatings, resulting in extensive bruising.
Still, she was forced to perform hand raises and squats. Lim knew about the punishment and supported it, the prosecution said.
On May 4, 2021, Baoying failed to do squats as instructed and was punished for lying about it.
Chee, followed by Bocan, then beat her in the living room with the wooden stick, but Baoying remained silent.
Bocan and Chee saw her silence as defiance, and Chee told the teen that crying would be a sign of remorse.
Still, Baoying remained quiet, prompting the pair to poke her. Chee then asked Lim to splash cold water on the victim, and Bocan later held the girl’s head under water for a few seconds.
By then, Baoying could no longer support herself in a sitting position.
Chee asked Lim to fetch some rope to tie Baoying’s hands together and force her to sit upright.
Bocan stood on Baoying’s thighs to try to make her cry. Lim later took over the position, but Baoying remained silent.
Bocan then fetched salt from the kitchen and passed it to Chee, who poured it on the victim’s open wound to provoke a reaction.
At about 11pm, Chee told the two men to bring Baoying to the toilet. With her hands tied above her head, Baoying was left beneath a running tap and drenched with water, causing her to struggle.
Bocan knew that his sister hated being wet.
She was left in this position for 15 minutes before she was untied. Bocan then changed his sister’s clothes before leaving her on a mattress.
Chee told Lim to prepare some dessert, and he complied.
In the wee hours of May 5, 2021, Bocan found that his sister had become unresponsive. Bocan suggested sending her to hospital, but Chee objected as she did not want the authorities involved.
They left the unresponsive girl alone until about 5am, when the discussion arose again over whether she should be sent to hospital.
They agreed to lie about how the incident arose, including claiming that Chee had not stayed at Lim’s flat. Bocan also deleted photos and videos of his sister’s wounds, as well as audio recordings that would implicate them.
Bocan called 995 at about 6.02am and was told to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his sister.
Paramedics found him doing so when they arrived at about 6.12am.
Resuscitation efforts failed and Baoying was pronounced dead minutes later. Noticing her injuries, the paramedics reported the case to the police.
According to an autopsy report, Baoying died from severe malnutrition with sepsis and excessive blunt force trauma.
Apart from extensive bruising, Baoying had a large, chronic, infected abscess on her right leg.
She was found to have weighed only 27.6kg at the time of her death, down from 48.8kg before she moved into Lim’s home.
Lim was arrested on May 11, 2021. He was assessed to have no mental illness and was not of unsound mind.
SENTENCING ARGUMENTS
Lim is represented by lawyers Ms Kate Loo and Ms Grace Martin, with Mr Sunil Sudheesan and Ms Joyce Khoo as consultant lawyers.
In mitigation, Ms Kate Loo said Lim had been brainwashed by Chee into believing that the acts were for Baoying’s benefit.
Ms Loo said her client was subjected to a similar punishment regime and was not the main driver of the abuse.
“The tragic incident took place within a group hierarchy in which the group’s leader, Chee Mei Wan, and Mei Wan’s boyfriend, Huang Bocan, exercised decision-making authority over a punishment regime meted out for our client and the deceased. Our client subsequently participated in the punishment regime,” the defence lawyers said.
They added that Lim’s eagerness to remain accepted in the social group led him to comply with all of Chee’s and Bocan’s instructions without question.
Ms Loo said that Lim was out of the house for most of the day on weekdays as he held a full-time job.
Ms Loo also submitted to the court Lim’s journal, in which he recorded how he had been subjected to punishments and had tried to give Baoying food secretly, but was scolded by a co-accused.
Lim now accepts that he was horribly misguided and should have stood up to the two co-accused individuals, Ms Loo said, adding that her client was remorseful.
Ms Loo sought 11 years’ jail, while the prosecution urged the court to impose 20 years’ jail.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh said that Lim should not be allowed to hide behind the excuse of being brainwashed.
While Lim was not the main driver, he had “actively endorsed the abuse, participated in it, and provided the environment for it to go on undetected”, Mr Koh said, adding that Baoying had to endure “horrifying and senseless torture”.
Justice Pang Khang Chau adjourned the case due to sentencing matters.
For culpable homicide not amounting to murder, a person can be jailed for up to life and caned, or up to 20 years with a fine or caning.