“You deserve to be put away for a long time,” High Court Justice Aidan Xu told Huang Bocan on Thursday (Nov 5) as he sentenced the 34-year-old to life imprisonment for murdering his younger sister, Channel News Asia reported.
Huang Baoying, then 19, died on May 5, 2021, after more than two months of starvation, beatings and confinement in the toilet of a flat at Block 602 Clementi West Street 1. She weighed just 27.6kg at autopsy, having lost 43 per cent of her body weight from 48.8kg recorded in June 2020, The Straits Times reported. The cause of death was a combination of severe malnutrition, sepsis and extensive blunt force trauma.
How the abuse unfolded in the Clementi flat
Bocan carried out the abuse alongside two accomplices: the flat’s owner, Lim Peng Tiong, 67, and his girlfriend Chee Mei Wan, 47. All three were members of a company marketing Herbalife products, where Chee acted as a “coach” and Bocan, Lim and Baoying were “trainee coaches,” Channel News Asia reported. According to court documents seen by AsiaOne, the trio meted out punishments to Baoying over her performance selling the products.
From January 2021, Bocan gave his sister an allowance of only $20 to $30 a week and allowed her one meal a day, ostensibly to teach her about hunger, The Straits Times reported. In February, she began being confined in the toilet for long periods and later chained to a railing with chains and a padlock on Chee’s instruction after she was found leaving the toilet to look for food, Mothership reported.
The beatings, mostly with a wooden stick with prongs used for hanging laundry, escalated through the spring. Bocan beat his sister about 220 times for “lying” and 240 times for “laziness,” and slapped her around 80 times — with Lim adding about 50 slaps — for falling asleep during a church service in April 2021. In April and May, she was totally deprived of food for days and allowed only water, and was forced out of the flat on several occasions, The Straits Times reported.
On the night of May 4, 2021, a weakened Baoying could not perform squats as instructed and was beaten again for lying about it; the trio then poured salt on a wound and drenched her with water from a toilet tap, AsiaOne reported. She was found unresponsive after midnight on May 5. Bocan called emergency services later that morning and had deleted photographs, videos and audio recordings of the abuse from his phone, AsiaOne reported.
Judge: she “would have looked up to you”
In sentencing, Justice Xu said Baoying “died on the cusp of adulthood, at the hands of those she appeared to have looked up to because they, drunk with power and domination, tortured her in cruel and inhuman ways,” The Straits Times reported. “Baoying would have looked up to you, she would have sought your protection and nurturing, and she would have cared for you. Yet you joined with others and treated her as less than human, less than a living being,” the judge said. He added: “I hope you will remember always what you have done to your sister and reflect on that.”
Bocan was found guilty of murder with the intention of causing fatal injury. The charge carries the death penalty or life imprisonment with possible caning, but Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh did not object to a life sentence or seek caning; the prosecution explained that Chee’s culpability was higher than Bocan’s and parity would need to apply, Mothership reported. Defence counsel Shashi Nathan agreed with the life sentence, telling the court, “He has killed his own sister… This is something he has to carry for the rest of his life,” The Straits Times reported.
Parents: “We never imagined that things could become so serious”
Bocan’s parents, factory workers who declined to give their names, sat in the front row of the public gallery throughout the hearing, Channel News Asia reported. His mother recalled that as a boy, Bocan tutored his younger sister, accompanied the nanny to bring the baby home, and did volunteer work overseas, including building toilets in Chiang Mai, Thailand. “Actually, he was very kind-hearted,” she said. “Why did this happen?”
After the sentencing, the couple spoke to their son through a slot in the glass panel of the dock for close to 10 minutes. Asked what Bocan told them, his mother said: “He didn’t say much. He told us to take care of ourselves since we are both older already.” His father told Bocan he hopes that while in jail, he will try his best to do good deeds and help people, Channel News Asia reported. Defence lawyer Nathan Shashidran told the court that Bocan’s father had contacted him almost every day and that Baoying’s death had “broken up the family in many ways.”
Co-accused Lim jailed; Chee’s case pending
Lim Peng Tiong was sentenced to 14 years and 11 months’ jail in May for his role in the abuse, The Straits Times reported. Chee Mei Wan, 47, has also been charged with murder and her case is pending before the courts, Channel News Asia reported. A psychiatrist assessed that Bocan did not have a mental illness and was not of unsound mind, AsiaOne reported.
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