SINGAPORE – A 67-year-old man who starved and tortured a 19-year-old woman at his Clementi flat for more than two months was sentenced on May 25 to 14 years and 11 months’ jail for causing her death.
The acts of abuse allegedly also involved the victim’s older brother and his married girlfriend, who are facing murder charges.
Ms Huang Baoying died on May 5, 2021, after enduring what prosecutors described as “horrifying and senseless torture” in a flat at Block 602 Clementi West Street 1.
Lim Peng Tiong, the flat’s owner, had pleaded guilty on Feb 9 to a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder over her death.
Ms Huang died from a combination of severe malnutrition, sepsis and extensive blunt force trauma.
She weighed only 27.6kg at her autopsy, having lost 43 per cent of her body weight over 11 months from June 2020, when her weight was last recorded as 48.8kg.
Lim’s sentence included a six-month term in lieu of caning. He cannot be caned as he is above the age of 50.
In sentencing, High Court judge Pang Khang Chau noted that among the three accused persons, Lim had the least involvement in the abuse that led to the victim’s death and that he himself was subject to abuse and coercion by the two other accomplices.
The prosecution had sought a sentence of 20 years’ jail for Lim to reflect his role in the abuse.
The defence had asked for a jail term of 11 years, contending that Lim was a follower who had been “brainwashed” by his accomplices.
Lim, Ms Huang, and her brother Huang Bocan, 34, were members of a multi-level marketing (MLM) “club” that sold nutritional products.
Huang Bocan’s girlfriend, Chee Mei Wan, 46, was their “coach”.
She owned a company selling Herbalife products, which she called a club, where members pay to get discounts on products and could also sell the goods to their own clients.
Chee had introduced a system of punishment to “correct” the bad habits of club members that she felt would negatively affect sales, which in turn would affect her commission.
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