SINGAPORE – Six years of reading news reports about her granddaughter, Megan Khung, have worn down the 69-year-old.
While the case finally concluded on Nov 13, as the third culprit involved in Megan’s death was sentenced to 13 years’ jail, the girl’s grandmother said her suffering has not ended.
Wanting only to be known by her surname Chua, the woman told The Straits Times in Mandarin: “What happened to Megan has caused me the greatest grief. The pain will last a lifetime.”
She was speaking over the phone after hearing about the sentencing of Nouvelle Chua Ruoshi.
Nouvelle had been part of a conspiracy to abuse four-year-old Megan Khung, alongside the girl’s mother Foo Li Ping and the mother’s boyfriend Wong Shi Xiang, who were both sentenced to jail in 2025.
The girl had suffered over a year of horrific physical and emotional abuse before she died on Feb 22, 2020. Nouvelle helped Foo and Wong dispose of Megan’s body by burning it. Her ashes were never recovered.
Megan was born on Oct 4, 2015, and would have been 11 years old if she had lived.
The shadow of her death still hangs over the family. Her name is rarely brought up when her grandmother visits Foo, her daughter, in prison monthly.
Foo would ask about her mother’s health but if the case is mentioned, it is always in fleeting remarks by the older woman.
She said: “I have never heard her say directly that she caused Megan’s death. When I said Megan suffered a terrible death, she would not reply but just cry silently.”
In April 2025, Foo was sentenced to 19 years’ jail, and Wong to 30 years’ jail and 17 strokes of the cane.
Megan Khung died after her mother Foo Li Ping’s boyfriend Wong Shi Xiang punched her in the stomach.
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In court, Foo had submitted handwritten letters claiming she was a victim of domestic abuse and expressing regret over her actions.
But the judge saw no mitigating value in the letters. Even if Foo had been abused, it did not absolve her of any liability, said the judge.
‘You will be punished’
As for Nouvelle, Megan’s grandmother said they only met about twice before the girl died, when Nouvelle had come to her home with Foo to pick Megan up for outings.
The elderly woman was furious when, at Foo’s court hearing years later, she watched the videos that Nouvelle had filmed of Megan’s abuse.
The girl started living with Foo and Wong at a condo unit in Suites @ Guillemard in September 2019.
Nouvelle, who was the couple’s friend, frequently stayed over during the weekends with her daughter. The three adults consumed drugs together.
Foo and Wong had caned and slapped Megan, deprived the girl of food and clothes, and made her sleep in a planter box at the balcony to prevent her from dirtying the flat.
Not only did Nouvelle not call for help, she even filmed the abusive acts to humiliate Megan.
The videos Nouvelle took showed Megan naked as she pleaded with her mother for a shirt, crying as Foo put a soiled diaper over her head, and being forced by Wong to eat food from the dustbin.
On one occasion, Nouvelle told Foo to make Megan eat her mucus because the crying girl was hungry. Foo then blew her nose into a handkerchief and forced it into the girl’s mouth.
Megan died after Wong punched her in the stomach on Feb 21, 2020.
On Nov 13, the judge in Nouvelle’s case said she cannot be categorised as a mere passive bystander.
“(Nouvelle) chose complicity and her sadistic amusement over her conscience,” said Justice S. Mohan.
Megan’s grandmother said the trio’s sentences were fair.
On Nouvelle, she said: “Maybe she didn’t know that when you harm someone, you can’t run away from it. You will definitely be punished.”
She said although the videos were harrowing to watch, it was also crucial evidence so the culprits could not spin their own version of events and evade the law.
Recently, she read about eight-month-old Trevor Neo, who was abused to death by his parents.
She said the baby’s parents were like Foo and Wong, adding: “They were just as crazy to abuse their own children on a whim.”
Much has changed in the child protection ecosystem after Megan’s death.
An independent review panel’s report in October 2025 revealed lapses at multiple points across the system and found more could have been done to prevent her death.
A flurry of new measures followed, such as setting up a new government unit to strengthen early detection of child abuse.
Megan’s grandmother hopes the system has become more robust since the girl’s death.
She wishes this will help other children, though she added: “But Megan is never coming back.”