Man, 66, pleads guilty in death of girl, 19, who was starved, beaten & chained in toilet in Clementi flat

In 2021, a 19-year-old girl died in a Clementi flat after being subjected to prolonged abuse, including being deprived of food, repeatedly beaten, and chained in a toilet for long periods by her own brother and two other individuals.

Lim Peng Tiong, 66, one of the three individuals facing charges in the death, pleaded guilty to one count of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in High Court on Feb. 9, CNA reported.

Found dead in Clementi unit in 2021

In May 2021, 19-year-old Huang Baoying was found motionless in a residential unit in Clementi West Street 1 by the police.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her brother, Huang Bocan, now 34, was arrested.

Two other individuals, Lim and Chee Mei Wan, now 46, were also arrested by the police.

They were initially charged with voluntarily causing grievous hurt, but had their charges amended to murder.

Joined Chee's company

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Huang and the three individuals met in 2018 through Chee's company, Colourful Nutrifit, which sold nutritional products.

Chee described the company as a club.

Clients received discounts for a subscription, and members of the club also sold products to their own clients.

The Huangs and Lim joined Chee's club as "trainee coaches", with Chee as the "coach".

The victim, then aged between 16 and 17, joined as she wanted to lose weight, improve herself and earn money.

The group grew close after spending time together while working on the club's activities, including travelling to Malaysia for roadshows to promote Herbalife products.

In September 2018, Bocan and Chee developed a romantic relationship, despite Chee being married.

The group started meeting at the Huang siblings' home, where Bocan would teach Chee how to use Zoom and Facebook to promote the products.

Moved in to Lim's home in 2020

The Huangs eventually had a rift with their father, who felt that the siblings were spending too much on the health products.

They spent about S$1,000 to S$2,000 per month.

In July 2020, the Huang siblings moved into Lim's home. Chee joined them after a fight with her own husband.

In October 2020, Chee came up with a fine system owing to Lim's bad habits like dragging his feet when walking.

Chee felt that Lim's habits would affect his sales performance, which would, in turn, affect her own commission.

Lim agreed as he felt the system would help him, and the siblings eventually became subject to the system as well.

In November 2020, Chee and the elder Huang introduced physical punishments, including exercise and beatings, as they found the fines to be "ineffective".

Chee was the only one exempt as she was the "coach".

The younger Huang bore the brunt of the punishments, as Chee felt that she "lacked discipline and motivation" and had poor sales.

A WhatsApp group was created in February 2021 to monitor and report Baoying's "mistakes".

'Full-blown torture'

The punishments meted out against Baoying escalated over time, with the prosecution calling them "full-blown torture and abuse".

The 19-year-old was beaten whenever she was deemed to have misbehaved.

She was forced out of the home between January and February 2021.

Baoying's brother cut her hair at one point before forcing her out of the home as a form of humiliation.

In January 2021, he started controlling her finances, giving her only S$20 to S$30 per week for one meal a day, supposedly to teach her to be grateful to people and opportunities.

According to court documents, this meal was supposed to be "mixed vegetable rice". However, Lim was not involved in the restriction of Baoying's finances.

Food deprivation became a form of punishment between February and May 2021, with things taking a turn for the worse in May 2021 when she was completely deprived of food for days.

From February 2021 to May 2021, Baoying was confined in the toilet by her brother and Chee, having to sleep and eat there.

Confined to the toilet

For almost the whole of March 2021, Baoying was confined to the toilet.

Baoying was later chained, using chains and a padlock bought by Lim on Chee's instruction, to a railing in the toilet after she was found to have left the toilet to look for food.

She was eventually chained around her ankle instead of her wrists after her brother found that she could escape the restraints.

In February 2021, Baoying was beaten up to 240 times in one go for "laziness" with a wooden stick on the back of her calves and thighs.

One of the wounds on her right calf never healed.

Chee also demonstrated to the two men how to beat Baoying "properly" by demonstrating on them the right amount of force to use.

On one occasion, she was beaten for accepting a blanket and straw mat from a stranger after being kicked out of the house.

In April 2021, Baoying was slapped around 80 times by her brother and around 50 times by Lim for falling asleep during a church service.

Events leading to death

On May 4, 2021, a day before she died, Baoying failed to perform squats as instructed and was punished for lying about it.

Chee, followed by Baoying's brother, beat her in the living room with a wooden stick.

Baoying remained silent. Seeing this as defiance, Chee told Baoying that crying would be seen as remorse and she would be given food.

Baoying continued with her silence, and curled into a foetal position.

Chee then told Lim to splash cold water on her before Bocan held the girl's head under water for a few seconds. At that point, Baoying could no longer sit up and kept sliding to the floor.

Lim and Bocan then took turns standing on Baoying's thighs to try to make her cry.

Chee then poured salt on Baoying's wounds to elicit a reaction.

At 11pm, Baoying was brought into the toilet and, with her hands tied above her head, was left under a running tap.

She was untied 15 minutes later. Her brother then changed her clothes and left her on a mattress.

Trio colluded to lie about what happened

Bocan later found her sister to be unresponsive sometime past midnight on May 5, 2021.

Chee objected to sending her to the hospital, as she did not want to involve the authorities.

Baoying was left alone until about 5am.

The trio then discussed again whether to send her to the hospital, and agreed to lie about the incident.

At 6:02am, Bocan called 995 and was told to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Baoying.

Baoying was pronounced dead at the scene minutes after paramedics arrived.

The paramedics later reported the case to the police.

Baoying was found to have weighed only 27.6kg at the time of her death, losing about 20kg, or 43 per cent, of her body weight over 11 months.

Lim was brainwashed: Defence

In mitigation, Lim's defence lawyer argued that Lim himself was subjected to Chee's punishment regime, CNA reported.

She also argued that the tragedy took place within the group's hierarchy, with Chee at the head of it.

Lim was also brainwashed into believing the actions against Baoying by Chee were for her own good, the lawyer posited.

The lawyer pointed out how Lim had attempted to secretly give food to Baoying, but was scolded by one of the co-accused.

The prosecution urged the court to impose 20 years' jail, but Lim's lawyer sought 11 years.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh countered that Lim should not be allowed to use the excuse of being brainwashed, CNA wrote.

He pointed out that Lim had endorsed the abuse, participated in it and provided the environment for it to go undetected.

The case has been adjourned due to sentencing matters, CNA reported.

Lim faces life imprisonment and caning, or up to 20 years with a fine or caning, for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

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