SINGAPORE: A man who strangled his pregnant wife before killing his four-year-old daughter lost his appeals against his double-murder convictions on Wednesday (Feb 23).
Delivering the verdict on behalf of a five-judge panel, Justice Judith Prakash dismissed the appeal and upheld the convictions as well as the death sentence.
Teo Ghim Heng was sentenced to death in November 2020 for murdering Ms Choong Pei Shan, who was six months pregnant, as well as their daughter in a flat in Woodlands.
He strangled Ms Choong, who was 39, with a towel in January 2017 after quarrelling with her about finances. He also claimed that she insulted him, calling him a "useless" father in front of their daughter.
When she was motionless, he asked his daughter to sit on his lap, before strangling her with the towel while she cried. He told her to "go find Mummy already", and killed her.
Teo laid the bodies on his bed and slept beside them for about a week. He tried to kill himself repeatedly but failed each time. He eventually set fire to the bodies and tried to lie down next to them but "chickened out" because of the heat.
The burnt bodies were found on the first day of Chinese New Year in 2017, when Teo's brother-in-law knocked at the door looking for his sister and detected an acrid smell coming from the windows.
Teo was represented by lawyers Eugene Thuraisingam, Suang Wijaya and Johannes Hadi. At appeal, they focused on the defence of diminished responsibility, arguing that the trial judge was not correct to find that Teo did not suffer from major depressive disorder at the time of the offences, and that Teo's mental responsibility was not substantially impaired.
The appeal was heard by a panel of five judges: Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, as well as Justices Judith Prakash, Steven Chong, Belinda Ang and Chao Hick Tin.
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Delivering the verdict on behalf of a five-judge panel, Justice Judith Prakash dismissed the appeal and upheld the convictions as well as the death sentence.
Teo Ghim Heng was sentenced to death in November 2020 for murdering Ms Choong Pei Shan, who was six months pregnant, as well as their daughter in a flat in Woodlands.
He strangled Ms Choong, who was 39, with a towel in January 2017 after quarrelling with her about finances. He also claimed that she insulted him, calling him a "useless" father in front of their daughter.
When she was motionless, he asked his daughter to sit on his lap, before strangling her with the towel while she cried. He told her to "go find Mummy already", and killed her.
Teo laid the bodies on his bed and slept beside them for about a week. He tried to kill himself repeatedly but failed each time. He eventually set fire to the bodies and tried to lie down next to them but "chickened out" because of the heat.
The burnt bodies were found on the first day of Chinese New Year in 2017, when Teo's brother-in-law knocked at the door looking for his sister and detected an acrid smell coming from the windows.
Teo was represented by lawyers Eugene Thuraisingam, Suang Wijaya and Johannes Hadi. At appeal, they focused on the defence of diminished responsibility, arguing that the trial judge was not correct to find that Teo did not suffer from major depressive disorder at the time of the offences, and that Teo's mental responsibility was not substantially impaired.
The appeal was heard by a panel of five judges: Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, as well as Justices Judith Prakash, Steven Chong, Belinda Ang and Chao Hick Tin.
Continue reading...