Public Prosecutor v Rohana

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Woo Bih Li J
• Judgment Date: 28 March 2006
• Neutral Citation: [2006] SGHC 52
• Court: High Court (Singapore)
• Year: 2006
• Published date: 28 March 2006
• Plaintiff Counsel: Jaswant Singh, Mark Tay and Jean Kua (Deputy Public Prosecutors)
• Defendant Counsel: Mohamed Muzammil (Muzammil Nizam & Partners)
• Subject Matter: Criminal Law,Offences,Culpable homicide,Accused charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder of her employer,Whether culpable homicide not amounting to murder established-Section 304(a) Penal Code (Cap 224, 1985 Rev Ed),Criminal Procedure and Sentencing,Mitigation,Whether accused's circumstances taken into consideration in sentencing
• Citation: [2006] SGHC 52

28 March 2006

Woo Bih Li J:

1 The accused, Rohana, faced a charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The charge read:

That you, ROHANA

on or about the 3rd day of July 2005, sometime between 7.58 a.m. and 9.57 a.m., at Block XXX #XX-XX, Singapore, did commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder by causing the death of one A, female aged X years, to wit, by strangulating the said A, which act was done with the intention of causing her death, and you have thereby committed an offence punishable under section 304(a) of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

2 The accused entered a plea of guilt to the charge. I accepted the plea and convicted her accordingly.

3 The offence carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or imprisonment of not more than ten years, with a possible liability of fine and caning as well which were not in issue before me.

4 The circumstances in which the offence was committed are found in the Statement of Facts (“SOF”) which reads:

Introduction

The accused is Rohana (Passport No: AH 30769, FIN No: G7574839 L) female/21 years old (DOB: 4 Mar 1985). She is an Indonesian national. At the time of the offence, she was working as a domestic maid for the deceased. She started work for the deceased on X XX 2004.

2 The deceased is A, female/X years old at the time of her demise. She ran a X business. She resided at Block XXX #XX-XX with her two daughters.

First Information Report

3 Sometime past 7 am on 3 July 2005, Madam B, who lived at Block XXX #XX-XX (directly below the deceased’s unit), heard a loud sound coming from the deceased’s unit. It sounded like something heavy had dropped on the floor. Shortly after, she heard voices of a female in distress coming from the same unit. She woke her husband, and together they went up to the deceased’s unit. Finding the wooden door and metal gate of the unit locked, they pressed the doorbell repeatedly but there was no response. They then returned to their flat. Whilst she was in the kitchen of her flat, she heard the deceased shouting, “help … somebody going to kill me”. She then called the police.

4 ....

Scene of crime

5 After calling the police, Madam B and her husband went up to the deceased’s unit again. Her husband banged on the door and rang the doorbell repeatedly. Madam B heard the deceased shout from inside the unit, “Chew ming! Chew ming!” (meaning “help me help me” in Mandarin). Whilst they were there, at about 8.16 am, Sgt Buyung and Cpl Ong arrived. She told the officers what she had heard earlier.

6 Despite identifying themselves as police officers and repeatedly knocking on the wooden door, there was no response from within the unit. Cpl Ong heard the sounds of heavy object(s) being shifted inside the unit. After about 15 minutes, a female voice, later ascertained to be that of the accused, informed them in English that she could not open the door as her employer was not in and that she would be scolded if she opened the door. At this juncture, Cpl Ong noticed that the peep hole of the wooden door had brightened up slightly as if some obstacle had been removed from it. Sgt Buyung tried to converse with the accused in Bahasa Indonesia but she did not respond. After several more unsuccessful attempts by the officers to persuade the accused to open the door, they notified their team leader, SI Masrun Ahmad (SI Masrun) and sought assistance.

7 At 8.40 am SI Masrun, SSS Eve Boon Yen Kian (SSS Eve), and SC/Cpl Gopinath (Cpl Gopinath) arrived at the scene. SI Masrun then identified himself as a police officer and tried to persuade the accused to open the door. She refused claiming that her “Ma’am” was out and would scold her if she opened the door. SI Masrun informed her that he would have to force open the door if she continued to refuse. Shortly thereafter, the accused stopped talking. SI Masrun heard splashing sounds from within the unit as if water had been poured onto the floor. The Singapore Civil Defence (SCDF) was activated to break open the doors.

8 At 9:09am, the SCDF officers arrived at the scene and subsequently broke open the doors of the unit at #XX-XX.

9 Upon entering the unit, the police officers found blood splatters and stains on the side wall in the living room as well as in the kitchen toilet. All the doors in the unit were closed but unlocked except the door of the master bedroom. SI Masrun found the deceased lying motionless in the storeroom, drenched in blood, and under an ironing board, a trolley and a mop. The SCDF officers forced open the door of the master bedroom. Inside, Cpl Ong found the deceased’s two daughters sitting on the bed. Sgt Buyung and SSS Eve found the accused hiding behind some clothes in the wardrobe in the master bedroom.

10 At 9.53 am, SCDF officer Sgt Jamil Bin Ali arrived at the scene and examined the deceased. He pronounced the deceased dead at 9.57 am.

11 The accused was arrested at the scene. She was sent for medical examination at the Alexandra Hospital the same day. She was noted to have minor superficial injuries on her right and left palms, fingers, thighs, knees and feet.

Cause of Death

12 An autopsy was performed by Dr Clarence Tan, Principal Consultant Forensic Pathologist at the Health Sciences Authority, on 4 July 2005 at 11.29 am. A total of 75 external injuries were found on the body of the deceased. The salient injuries were, (i) fractures of her front upper two incisors, (ii) deep laceration over the right eyebrow and (iii) a 2 cm crack fracture of the right eye socket. .… Dr Tan certified the cause of death to be manual strangulation.

Circumstances leading to the death of the deceased

13 Investigations revealed that sometime in the early morning on 3 July 2005, the deceased, her two daughters and the accused were in the deceased’s flat. The daughters were sleeping in the master bedroom. The accused was sleeping on a mattress in a separate room.

14 According to the accused, the deceased came into her room to wake her up as it was already 7 am. The accused did not wake up immediately, and continued to lie on her mattress. The deceased scolded the accused and pushed her right cheek. A scuffle ensued and the accused grabbed a large crystal ornamental stone from a cupboard and used it to hit the deceased on the forehead. The deceased started bleeding from her forehead and fell backwards. The ornamental stone slipped out of the accused’s hands and fell onto the floor.

15 The said large crystal ornamental stone was ascertained to be an amethyst geode weighing about 10.5 kg and was approximately 37 cm high.

16 After being hit, the deceased got up and went to the living room, calling for her elder daughter, C. She appeared dizzy. Fearing that C would wake up and call the police, the accused picked up the ornamental stone and approached the deceased, who was by then lying on the sofa in the living room. The accused brought the ornamental stone down with great force onto the deceased’s head. The ornamental stone broke upon impact with the deceased’s head, and the deceased began bleeding profusely. She cried out in pain and called out for C. The accused pulled the deceased off the sofa and the latter fell onto the floor. She covered the deceased’s mouth with her hand to prevent her from shouting. The deceased struggled and managed to bite the accused’s right ring finger and used her left leg to try to push the accused away. The accused picked up a piece of the broken ornamental stone and hit the deceased’s head again with great force. She then placed her hands on the deceased’s neck. The deceased pleaded “sorry Na, sorry Na, I love you I love you”.

17 According to the accused, at this point, the doorbell began ringing and the deceased shouted for help by calling out “Jui Ming ya. Jui Ming ya” (“help me” in Mandarin). The accused dragged the deceased by the hair to the kitchen toilet. According to the accused, she dragged the deceased to the kitchen toilet as it was away from the living room and the bedroom where the children were sleeping. The deceased groaned in pain and cried out “call police, call police wa wa”. En route to the toilet, the accused banged the deceased’s head into the wall to stop her from shouting.

18 Inside the toilet, the deceased again shouted “chew ming”. The accused banged the deceased’s head three times on the floor to stop the shouting. In the toilet at this point, the accused could still hear the doorbell ringing and voices shouting outside. The accused recognised the voice as that of a neighbour from the 10th floor. According to the accused, the deceased had gestured to her whilst at the doorway of her bedroom earlier as if she was going to hit her. As such, whilst in the toilet, the accused asked the deceased, “why you want to make me die?If you want make me die, you must die, I also die”. The deceased said, “you cannot die, you got father, mother. I also cannot die.Mei Mei (referring to younger daughter) small, Jie Jie (referring to elder daughter) small must have people take care of her”. The accused then lifted the deceased up by the hair and dragged her from the toilet to the store room.

19 According to the accused, she dragged the deceased to the storeroom as it had no windows and, as such, the deceased’s shouts for help would not be heard.

20 At the storeroom, the deceased struggled to break away from the accused’s restraint but was unable to do so in her weakened state. The deceased pleaded with the...