Public Prosecutor v Ong Pei Ling Audrey

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Richard Magnus
• Judgment Date: 07 February 2003
• Neutral Citation: [2003] SGDC 337
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Published date: 03 October 2006
• Year: 2003
• Plaintiff Counsel: Kan Shuk Weng & Francis Ng
• Defendant Counsel: Jeffrey Soh (Jeffrey Soh & Company)
• Citation: [2003] SGDC 337

7 February 2003

Senior District Judge Richard Magnus

The accused is Audrey Ong Pei Ling, a 23-year-old female Singapore citizen. She now stands convicted, on her plea of guilty, to two offences under section 201 read with section 109 of the Penal Code, Cap 224. She has committed serious offences. The statutory scheme of penalties for the section 201 offences shows that the gravity of the screening from legal punishment varies according to the gravity of the principal offences. The principal offences involved on the present two charges are for murder. Murder is clearly one of the most serious offences in the criminal justice system, an offence punishable with death. The accused’s offences are, therefore, the most grave under this section and come within its first limb.

2. The accused knew that murders had been committed. Nevertheless, she aided the principal offender, one Michael McCrea, to cause certain evidence of the commission of these murder offences to disappear and thereby destroyed the evidence which might be used against the principal offender in a court of law, with the intention of screening him from legal punishment. In the case of the murder victim, one Kho Nai Guan (“Guan”), she aided the principal offender by:

(i) hiding the body of the victim in a wicker chest and thereafter leaving it in the car at the carpark at Orchard Towers;

(ii) removing the bloodstains from the premises of No. 21, Balmoral Park, where the offence of murder was committed; and

(iii) disposing the personal belongings of the victim.

In respect of the second murder victim, one Lan Ya Ming (“Suzie”), she aided the principal offender by:

(i) hiding the body of the victim in a wicker chest and thereafter leaving it in the car at the carpark at Orchard Towers;

(ii) removing the bloodstains from the premises of No. 21, Balmoral Park, where the offence of murder was committed; and

(iii) disposing the personal belongings of the victim.

3. Each of her offence carries a mandatory imprisonment of up to 7 years and a liability to a fine.

The Statement of Facts

4. The facts relating to the murders, which are set out clearly and adequately in the Statement of Facts, provide the context in which the accused committed her offences and show the prominent role she played and the extent of her involvement. These are the facts, set out in paragraphs 5 to 30 below, to which the accused has admitted to without qualification.

5. The accused was the girlfriend and personal assistant of the said Michael McCrea (“McCrea”), a 44-year-old British national residing at a rented apartment located at 21 Balmoral Park, #05-11 Pinewood Gardens (“the apartment”) and who was running his own business as a financial consultant. The accused was living with McCrea at the time of the offence.

6. On 8 January 2002 at about midnight, the Police received a call from the informant one S A Mohamed Yacob Bin M S Abdul Kader, who is working as a security officer attached to Orchard Towers, stating that a foul smell was emanating from a vehicle parked on the 7^th floor of the multi-storey carpark at Orchard Towers.

7. Upon arrival at the said carpark, the informant brought the police officers to the vehicle, which was a silver coloured Daewoo Chairman bearing license plate SCZ2012E (“the vehicle”). A search was conducted and the officers at the scene found the decomposed bodies of a male and a female in the vehicle. The male corpse was found in a wicker chest placed at the back seat of the vehicle and the female corpse was found wrapped in a cloth bundle in the boot of the vehicle.

8. On 9 January 2002, at the Singapore General Hospital Mortuary, Dr Paul Chui, Senior Forensic Pathologist, performed a postmortem on the two deceased persons. He certified the cause of death of the male deceased to be “strangulation” while the cause of death of the female deceased was certified to be “consistent with suffocation”. The time of death for both deceased persons was estimated to be 3-5 days prior to the post-mortem.

9. The police subsequently established the identity of the male deceased to be one Guan, a male Chinese Singaporean, 46 years of age at the time of death. Investigations revealed that Guan was also the registered owner of the vehicle SCZ2012E and worked for McCrea as a chauffeur. Investigations further revealed that Guan was residing with McCrea at the apartment, where he occupied one of the three bedrooms.

10. The female deceased was found to be one Suzie, a female Chinese national, aged 29 at the time of death. Investigations revealed that Suzie was Guan’s girlfriend and that she stayed with Guan in the apartment.

11. According to the accused, McCrea had gathered her, Guan and Suzie in the living room of the apartment sometime in the early hours of 2 January 2002. McCrea then started telling the accused and Guan about his New Year resolutions and his expectations for the accused and Guan in terms of their job performance for the year 2002. He also spoke about his plans for his business. Thereafter, Guan and Suzie got up and walked towards Guan’s bedroom. As Guan walked past the accused, he turned to her and called her a “slut” in Mandarin. McCrea then asked the accused what Guan had said to her, whereupon the accused told McCrea that Guan had called her a slut. On hearing this, McCrea immediately walked towards Guan and pushed him against the wall. McCrea then raised his hand to strike Guan, but was held back by the accused and Suzie.

12. The accused saw a flower vase being smashed onto McCrea’s head. At the same time, she saw Guan moving towards McCrea. However, McCrea grabbed Guan by the hand, swung him onto the floor and started to kick him repeatedly on the body. McCrea then placed an arm-lock around Guan’s neck and used his other hand to punch Guan continuously on the face until the latter’s face was swollen.

13. Thereafter, McCrea again started to kick Guan repeatedly on the body. At that moment, Suzie started approaching McCrea. McCrea was then seen grabbing Suzie’s right arm and a knife fell onto the floor. McCrea then pushed Suzie to the floor and kicked her until she was unconscious.

14. The accused then noticed that McCrea’s left hand was injured and that Guan was bleeding badly from his mouth. She then helped McCrea bandage his hand. Thereafter, both of them went to take a look at Guan. At about 4.30 am on 2 January 2002, the accused felt that Guan’s body was very cold and that his legs had turned purplish; they then realised that Guan was dead. However, according to the accused, Suzie was still alive at that time as she had seen some slight movements from Suzie. The accused then helped Suzie to Guan’s bedroom and left her there.

15. Sometime in the afternoon of 2 January 2002, McCrea and the accused called a friend of theirs, one Gemma Louise Ramsbottom (“Gemma”), and requested her to go over to the apartment to help them. Gemma had, on occasion in the past, helped McCrea with paperwork as well. Gemma spoke to both the accused and McCrea and finally agreed to go to the apartment with her daughters after she had finished her shopping.

16. After speaking to Gemma, McCrea proposed hiding Guan’s body in a luggage. However, the accused replied that it was not possible and suggested instead that they put Guan’s body into the wicker chest which was used as a coffee table in the living room. Thereafter, the accused emptied out the contents of the wicker chest and proceeded to assist McCrea to put Guan’s body into the wicker chest. The accused helped McCrea by carrying Guan’s legs whilst McCrea lifted Guan by grabbing Guan’s chest. After putting Guan’s body into the wicker chest, the accused helped McCrea to push the chest to the corner of the living room.

17. Thereafter, the accused spoke to Suzie as instructed by McCrea to find out where Guan had kept his salary and the bonus which McCrea had paid him, so that McCrea could take the money back. However, McCrea and the accused were unable to find the money despite searching the apartment.

18. Sometime between 4.00 – 5.00 pm on 2 January 2002, Gemma arrived at the apartment with her two young daughters. The accused brought the two girls to the swimming pool of Pinewood Gardens and called her friend, one Cheo Yi Tang Justin (“Justin”), for help. She told Justin that McCrea had killed Guan and that she needed to get rid of the “dead rat”. She then asked Justin if he could help her procure some acid to dissolve the “dead rat” and asked Justin how else she could dispose of the “dead rat”. Justin suggested she could burn Guan’s body at Jurong and reminded her to use bleach to clean away the bloodstains. Before hanging up, the accused asked Justin to go to the apartment.

19. After the phone call, the accused brought the two girls back to the apartment. According to the accused, Suzie was still alive at this point in time and she heard Gemma asking Suzie to tell McCrea where the money was kept. The accused then took a mop and started mopping away the bloodstains on the floor of the apartment. Shortly thereafter, Gemma left the apartment for home with her daughters. The accused continued to clean away the bloodstains and also threw away the broken pieces of the flower vase that had been smashed the night before. Thereafter, the accused helped McCrea to search the apartment for the money again.

20. Later in the evening of 2 January 2002, the accused left the apartment for Gemma’s residence to help Gemma look for a babysitter for her daughters so that Gemma could return to the apartment to help McCrea.

21. According to the accused, she returned to the apartment at about midnight on 3 January 2002 after having arranged for a friend to babysit Gemma’s daughters. When she entered the apartment, she noticed that Suzie was lying on the floor in Guan’s bedroom and appeared to be motionless. According to the accused, McCrea then allegedly told her that Suzie was dead. Gemma had already returned to...