S'pore man jailed for life for torturing teen sister to death: Parents said he was kind, took care of her

A man in Singapore, Huang Bocan, was sentenced to life in prison for fatally starving and beating his 19-year-old sister, Huang Baoying. in 2021.

Post-trial, the parents of the siblings have expressed regret.

Speaking to the media after the Nov. 5 court hearing, they said in Mandarin that Bocan was a mature person who took care of his sister.

A close family friend who accompanied them at court added that Bocan would often take his sister out and buy her drinks.

The siblings were very close, the friend added.

However, over four months from February to May 2021, Bocan and two other accomplices subjected Baoying to "full-blown torture and abuse", in the words of the prosecution.

How they met

The four of them met in 2018 through a nutritional health products company run by Chee Mei Wan, one of the co-accused and Bocan's girlfriend at the time.

In 2020, they all moved into the home of the other co-accused, Lim Peng Tiong, at Clementi West Street 1.

As a form of "punishment", Bocan, Chee, and Lim confined Baoying to a toilet, deprived her of food, and beat her on multiple occasions until she died on May 5, 2021.

They "tortured her in cruel and inhumane ways", the judge said when delivering the sentence on Nov. 4.

Lim was previously sentenced to 14 years and 11 months' jail for culpable homicide not amounting to murder while Chee's case was still pending.

Smart and did good deeds

When asked about Bocan's personality, his parents said he had a "kind heart" and often did volunteer work overseas.

"He always did good deeds," the family friend said.

Bocan's father recalled that his son was very good to him and his wife as he would give them money before the Covid-19 pandemic.

His parents, who work at a factory, shared that Bocan was smart and did well in polytechnic, getting a GPA of 3.9.

He received a scholarship to study a computer-related degree at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

After Bocan was sentenced on Nov. 4, the parents were granted permission to speak to him for a while.

They shared with reporters that Bocan told them to take care of themselves as they were getting old.

Cut off communication

The Huang siblings moved into Lim's house in 2018 after a rift with their father about the health products they were buying from Chee's company.

Outside the courtroom, their father told reporters they spent a lot of money on the products.

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

When they moved out, the parents did not know where they were staying.

The siblings did not give their parents the address, the family friend said.

They would not answer the parents' calls and messages either.

The parents said their main way of checking in on their children then was through Chee, whom they referred to as "coach".

Regretful

As Bocan and Baoying were good children, their parents did not worry much about them, and focused on their own work.

This made their mother feel regretful.

She urged other parents to put more emphasis on their family and children, and not focus only on work.