After spending more than half his life behind bars, the 15 year-old killer in the infamous 2001 Anthony Ler crime case is seeking presidential clemency from President Halimah.

He is 31 this year.

The Straits Times documented this grisly crime in an e-book titled Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965. 

In it, we found the written confession of Z, the killer who was manipulated by Ler into murdering the latter's wife.

"How I wished that I had never known Anthony"

Here was what the then 15 year-old wrote:

I got to know Anthony Ler when I was about the age of 10. I used to bring my hamster down to the stone chairs and play with it. Anthony had a dog, so that was roughly how I got to know him.

Anthony shifted away from Block 109 Pasir Ris Street 11, so I lost contact with him. But he did not tell me that he was going to shift to Block 116, Pasir Ris Street 11.

It was only recently I found out that he had shifted to Block 116. Then I saw him almost every night when I went down to the coffeeshop or McDonald’s. He met my friends Gavin, Vick, Ka Cheong and Zhi Hao.

At first, my friends did not like his company but after some time they accepted him. He started telling us about his wife and even asked us if we would like to kill her. In return he would give us a sum of $100,000.

All of us rejected, but later on he came and asked me to do it. He told me that nothing would happen to me and asked me to imagine that I’m getting paid about $2,000 or more per month for the next four years.

Anthony told me that nothing would happen to me if I went according to his plan, he said he had thought and planned this whole thing out for a very long time. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t want to do it after knowing so many things about him.

I believed him and agreed to help him because he told me that he killed for a living and until now he did not get caught. He also mentioned that his graphic design job was just a cover-up.

After that, he gave me $100 to get two M-cards so that he could contact me without people knowing. Then he told me to get a knife, a sharp, pointed one.

After he told me that, I went to a handphone kiosk at Pasir Ris Drive 6 to get two SIM cards, then I got a knife from the hardware shop beside the kiosk. Then I met him at the bus stop across the road so that he could show me the place where his wife lives. He brought me to Block 923, Hougang Avenue 9.

After that, we went back to his place. There he taught me how to murder his wife. He told me to practise it, so that when the time comes, I would not be scared.

On May 13, 2001, Anthony... told me that before he went to McDonald’s, he had gone to meet his wife and to see his daughter. He also said that during that time he had tried to kill his wife but did not have the chance because his daughter was around.

I was quite happy when I heard this, because I did not want to do this. I was forced to do it.

I followed Anthony back to his house because he asked me to practise how to kill his wife. On May 14, at about 9pm plus, I went to Anthony’s house to practise some more because he kept calling me on my handphone.

At Anthony’s house, after practising, he wrapped the knife in newspaper and passed it to me.

I tucked the knife in my jeans. We took a bus over to his wife’s place. After alighting from the bus, we went our separate ways, I went to his wife’s void-deck while he went to the nearby coffeeshop.

After that, he called me on my handphone and told me to wait for his wife to return home, so I waited. At 10pm plus, he called me to say that his wife has returned home already and he asked me to wait for his wife at the fifth storey.

I did not kill her because their daughter was with her at that time. I then called Anthony to tell him I did not want to do it because his daughter was present. He told me that his wife would be going up alone and he asked me to take that chance.

I attacked her from behind, I slashed her neck and stabbed her in the chest. After that I ran down the stairs and walked to the bus stop where I took a cab to dispose the weapon.

On the way to the beach to dispose the knife, I really regretted doing it – even at this point of time while writing this.

How I wished that I had never known Anthony. I have let my parents down and all those around me. I do not know how people would think of me. I feel very lost and confused.

Anthony did not call me on my handphone until the morning of May 17, 2001. He asked to me to get The New Paper for him, and lunch.

Anthony told me the police had looked for him and he would pass me some of the money later on.

Anthony told me that I had done a good job.

"Ensnared” by Ler’s deceit

During the trial in 2001, the Judicial Commissioner Tay Yong Kwang lambasted Ler for masterminding the "death match on the chess board of reality where [Z and his young friends] were to be his pawns". 

On the other hand, Judicial Commissioner Tay found Z to be a "morose and mortified teenager still trying to come to terms with the cataclysmic events" that happened in the past months. 

I see no mean miniature monster in him. I detect no vengeful or vicious spirit in this 15-year-old boy before me.

- Judicial Commissioner Tay Yong Kwang

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Ler was hanged on December 13, 2002, while Z was detained indefinitely, till this day.

Z previously made a clemency plea in 2013 to then-President Tony Tan.

Top images via NewspaperSG.