The owner of an illegal brothel in Geylang was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty on Wednesday (May 31) for the murder of a pimp. The assault occurred a couple years ago between 11am and 2.30pm on Jan 14, 2014, at a lodging house-turned-brothel on Lorong 18 Geylang.
Convinced that he was missing $6,500, 53-year-old Chan Lie Sian clobbered 35-year-old William Tiah Hung Wai repeatedly with a metal dumbbell rod for stealing the money from his pocket while he slept. But the High Court heard that Tiah denied the accusations until his death.
Chan hit Tiah on the head at least 10 times — continuing even after he became unconscious and unresponsive — using a 40cm-long rod that weighed 1.46kg, leaving him with severe head and brain injuries, including skull fractures. A week after the bludgeoning, the comatose victim died at the hospital, just one day before his 36th birthday.
Chan surrendered to the police later on. The two men were apparently members of the same secret society, according to The Straits Times.
Chan’s lawyers defended him by saying that Tiah died of bronchopneumonia, which he contracted while in hospital. They also maintained that Chan was intoxicated on sleeping pills and cough syrup during the incident, causing him to accidentally hit Tiah on the head twice. But according to the experts who testified at the trial, Tiah had “zero chance” of surviving after the injuries caused by the attack.
While striking Tiah, Chan had told a witness that if the victim was not dead, he would break his arms and legs. Chan also ordered an employee to clean up the bloodied scene at the lodging house and attempted to stop people from reporting the crime. Furthermore, he tried to get rid of the murder weapon and lied to police officers that he had found Tiah on the pavement outside and brought him in to his front porch.
Judicial Commissioner Hoo Sheau Peng found Chan guilty of murder, stating that the evidence and Tiah’s injuries showed a brutal assault that was one-sided, reports Channel NewsAsia.
“I find that he had the intent to kill,” noted JC Hoo.
