Singapore Man Gets Life Sentence for Murdering 19-Year-Old Sister: Victim Was Chained in a Toilet and Weighed Just 27.6kg
SINGAPORE — Singapore's High Court on November 5 sentenced 34-year-old Huang Bocan to life imprisonment for murder. Together with his girlfriend Chee Mei Wan and flat owner Lim Peng Tiong, he abused his 19-year-old sister Huang Baoying over a long period, causing her death on May 5, 2021. Justice Aidan Xu imposed no caning, with the sentence backdated to May 5, 2021; Huang had pleaded guilty and did not contest the murder charge, and both prosecution and defence had submitted that life imprisonment should be imposed.
According to the High Court judgment ([2026] SGHC 232) and the facts presented in court, Huang Baoying died of severe malnutrition, sepsis and extensive blunt force trauma. She weighed only 27.6kg at her death, down about 43 per cent from the 48.8kg last recorded in June 2020.
The court heard that Baoying, then seeking to lose weight and earn money, joined a nutritional products direct-selling business together with her brother. Chee Mei Wan, 47, was their upline supervisor and Huang Bocan's girlfriend, while Lim Peng Tiong, 67, was a direct-selling member and the flat owner. From mid-February to May 4, 2021, the three confined her in the toilet of the flat at Block 602 Clementi West Street 1, repeatedly beating and starving her over what they said was her poor sales performance; after she left the toilet to look for food, she was chained to a railing beside the toilet bowl. Prosecutors described the abuse as horrifying and senseless torture. The judge noted that Baoying had looked up to and trusted her brother to care for her, yet was treated in cruel and inhuman ways.
Lim Peng Tiong earlier pleaded guilty to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and was sentenced on May 25 this year to 14 years and 11 months in jail. Chee Mei Wan has also been charged with murder and her case is still pending.
Speaking after the sentencing, the siblings' parents said through tears that Bocan had once cared deeply for his sister — he had written in a diary that he should love her as he loved himself — and that they regretted working long hours and spending too little time with their children.
(Source: High Court of Singapore)
Source: High Court of Singapore
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：新加坡最高法院大楼（高等法院设于此，资料图，Jacklee 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons）。 / Photo: The Supreme Court Building in Singapore, home to the High Court (file photo by Jacklee, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
