The Andrew Road triple murders was a case of robbery turned triple murder in a bungalow at Andrew Road, Singapore, in 1983. The robbery was committed by two young men armed with a rifle and knife. During the robbery, one of the robbers murdered three of the five hostages while the other protected the remaining two hostages from his partner. Eventually, both were arrested and charged with
murder, though it would end in the killer being
hanged
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...
while the other, who did not take part in the killings, received
life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
and
caning for armed robbery. It was further revealed in police investigations that the killer,
Sek Kim Wah, was also responsible for an unrelated double murder of two more victims, whom he killed using the same
modus operandi as for the Andrew Road victims, making him the first and only
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
in Singapore to date.
Crime
Armed robbery
On the fateful morning of 23 July 1983, at around 8 am, 10-year-old Dawn Jacinta Tay Aishan (郑爱姗), the youngest daughter of 61-year-old retired businessman Robert Tay Bak Hong (郑木丰), was
roller-skating
Roller skating is the act of traveling on surfaces with roller skates. It is a recreational activity, a sport, and a form of transportation. Roller rinks and skate parks are built for roller skating, though it also takes place on streets, sid ...
outside her house while waiting for her Mandarin tuition teacher, Mdm Tang So Ha (邓淑霞) to come to her house to give her lessons. At around the same time, two houses away from the little girl's home, there were two young men fixing their motorcycle. It was around 30 minutes later then the tutor arrived at the house.
40 minutes after the arrival of Dawn's tutor, the two men seen repairing the motorcycle - 19-year-old
National Serviceman (NSman) Sek Kim Wah and 19-year-old
Malaysian
Malaysian may refer to:
* Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia
* Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia
* Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...
Nyu Kok Meng - saw the front gate of Dawn's
bungalow left wide open. They took out a loaded
M16 rifle
The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-ro ...
(which Sek stole from
Nee Soon military camp where he served his
National Service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The ...
) and brandished a knife before barging into the bungalow, first taking the Tay family's
Filipino
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
domestic helper Jovita Sandrina Virador (nicknamed Duby, also spelled Jovita Merador), aged 27, hostage. They entered the house with Jovita and used the rifle to threaten Dawn, Mdm Tang, and Dawn's 40 or 45-year-old mother Annie Low Au Ie (刘爱仪), forcing them inside a room before tying them up. One of the men forced Dawn to call her father (who was in the back garden) up into the room; Robert Tay was lured into the room and was tied up as well.
After telling Sek where to find her jewelry, Low was told to write a cheque of $5000, which was immediately taken by Sek to the bank to cash while Nyu stayed behind to guard the hostages. Feeling sorry for the tutor whose head was covered in a plastic bag, he removed it for her. Sek returned with the money but was not satisfied with the loot they had from the robbery, so he picked up Tay and told him to go to the bank with him to withdraw more cash. During the time Sek was out with Tay, Nyu told the women that he would not harm them, as it was his first robbery and he had no intention to harm anyone. At the request of Low, Nyu shook hands with Dawn as a promise to not hurt them.
Triple murder
Sek later returned with $7,000. After gagging the victims and taking Tay, Low, and Jovita into separate rooms, the robbers continued to ransack the house. Afraid of leaving behind witnesses, Sek secretly formed an intention to murder all the hostages. He first used a raffia string to strangle Tay before using a wooden stool to repeatedly bludgeon him until he was dead, fracturing his skull. He also entered the master bedroom where he held Jovita and Low hostage and fatally strangled the women, again using a wooden stool to repeatedly strike Low's covered head.
After being alerted by the thumping sounds in the house and witnessing Sek's actions, Nyu armed himself with the rifle and locked himself in the room with Dawn and her tutor, intending to protect the surviving hostages. Sek later returned to the room where Nyu, Dawn and Tang were hiding and demanded that Nyu let him in to murder the remaining hostages before making their escape, while actually intending to also kill Nyu. Nyu adamantly refused and asked Sek why would he commit murder when he had already robbed the victims of their money, and told Sek to leave. After a heated row between the two men, Sek left the house in Mr Tay's
Mercedes car with the loot from the robbery.
Nyu then released both Dawn and Mdm Tang and told them to run away, informing them of the murder of Dawn's parents and maid and furnishing them with Sek's address. He drew a map of the area where Sek lived in on an envelope and gave it to Mdm Tang, who was afraid that Nyu might cause harm to her and her student and secretly armed herself with a small knife which she could use to defend both of them if Nyu attempt to harm them. Nyu also gave her his Malaysian
identity card
An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID card, citizen ca ...
, telling her to help him buy a
coffin and inform his parents and grandmother that he was sorry as he wanted to commit suicide. He also asked Mdm Tang to bury him next to his deceased best friend Lau Beng Hiong (刘明雄), whose Chinese name he wrote inside Dawn's exercise book before giving it to her.
Nyu wanted her to repeat his requests, and despite her fear of Nyu, Tang tried to dissuade Nyu from committing suicide. It was only when Nyu pointed the rifle at her that Tang fled the house with Dawn (who witnessed her parents’ bodies) into a neighbour's house to contact the police.
Nyu tried to shoot himself twice but he failed as he did not know how to use the rifle. Frustrated, Nyu fled the bungalow, but not before leaving behind the rifle and stolen ammunition, for fear that Sek would murder more people. He met up with Sek in another safe place that afternoon to divide the loot. Nyu later left Singapore on that night itself for Malaysia using a friend's passport, while Sek remained in Singapore.
Arrests
Meanwhile, the police had arrived at the bungalow and searched the house for the robbers, but they could only find the bodies. The case was assigned to Inspector P. Sathasivam of the
Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is distinct from its Special Branch (though officers of b ...
(CID), who headed the police investigations. The police knew that Tay, a father of eight other adult children (including one foster son) and a grandfather of five grandchildren, had a reputation of being a generous and virtuous businessman who helped ex-convicts to reintegrate into society by providing them work at the factory, hence they ruled out the possibility of a revenge-killing. With Nyu's Malaysian IC and the map drawn by Nyu, which Mdm Tang gave to the police, the police managed to arrest Sek six days later at his elder sister Sek Yoke Mui's flat in Alexandra Road on 29 July 1983. Unable to cope with his guilt, Nyu surrendered himself to the police three days after Sek's arrest and was extradited back to Singapore on 3 August 1983. Both men were charged with murder.
Background of the robbers
Sek Kim Wah
Sek Kim Wah (
Traditional Chinese
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays ...
: 薛金華;
Simplified Chinese
Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to:
Mathematics
Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example
* Simplification of algebraic expressions, ...
: 薛金华;
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
: xuē jīnhuá) was a Singaporean born sometime between 18 March 1964 and 23 July 1964. The details of his early childhood and life before the murders are based on the court testimonies given by his family members and Sek himself. Sek came from a broken family, in which he grew up under neglectful parents with an elder brother Sek Kim Siong (born in 1962), an elder sister Sek Yoke Mui (born in 1963) and Sek Nyuk Ngok (born in 1966). His father Sek Yuon Chin was said to be a heavy and compulsive gambler who was rarely home, and later left the family to live with a mistress in
Ang Mo Kio
Ang Mo Kio is a planning area and residential town situated in the North-East of Singapore. Located approximately north of the Downtown Core district, Ang Mo Kio is the 3rd most populated planning area in the North-East Region and ranks 8th ...
when Sek was 9. Similarly, Sek's mother Hoh Mooi Chai also left the family to have an affair with a married man. Another aggravating factor was the children's separation from their grandparents after a heated quarrel between their mother and the grandparents, resulting in the couple's four young children, who were not close to each other, fending for themselves and stealing to survive. The children had also gone astray without parental guidance, as their grandparents had been the ones to discipline the children in the absence of the parents, prior to their move-out.
Sek, who only attended four years of primary school before dropping out due to financial reasons, was said to be a naughty child when young. His elder sister Sek Yoke Mui said that he was obsessed with
Wuxia
( ), which literally means "martial heroes", is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China. Although is traditionally a form of historical fiction, its popularity has caused it to be adapted ...
novels and
Kungfu
Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common ...
movies in his childhood and had
molest
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assau ...
ed his younger sister Nyuk Ngok at age 12. Sek was also said to enjoy injuring himself at times, describing it as thrilling. He and his elder brother Kim Siong would always get into fights with students while in school, and both had bad, impulsive tempers. There was one occasion when both brothers were chained at home for stealing a bicycle and fighting,
and often, there was no communication between parents and children. Eventually, Kim Siong was jailed in a boys' home for
theft
Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for som ...
, and later on a second time for being
AWOL
Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which ...
during his
National Service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The ...
. It was at this point, Kim Siong claimed, he started to reconsider his life choices and decided to turn over a new leaf and be more mature; as a result, he restarted his education and later found a stable job as an
electrician
An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance ...
a few years later.
On the other hand, Sek Kim Wah, who became a secret society member at age 13 by joining a gang called "Gi It San", was sentenced to 4 years in a boys' home in 1979 for theft. He was
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
d in 1981 for good behavior and joined the army a year later to serve his National Service. It was on 30 June 1983 when he first committed murder: he robbed and killed 42-year-old illegal bookmaker, Lim Khee Sin (林庚申) and his 32-year-old bar waitress girlfriend, Ong Ah Hong (王亚凤) somewhere in
East Coast Park
East Coast Park is a beach and a park encompassing Marine Parade, Bedok and Tampines, along the southeastern coast of Singapore. It was opened in the 1970s, after the Singapore government had completed reclaiming land off the coast at Katon ...
, strangling them in the same way he strangled the victims at Andrew Road. After killing the couple, he dumped the bodies at the
Seletar Reservoir
Upper Seletar Reservoir ( ms, Takungan Air Upper Seletar, Chinese: 实里达蓄水池上段) is Singapore's third impounding reservoir, after MacRitchie Reservoir and Peirce Reservoir (now the Upper Peirce Reservoir and the Lower Peirce Reservoi ...
dirt track, after stealing Lim's
driving license
A driver's license is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, cars, trucks, or buses—on a public r ...
.
This case remained unsolved until Sek himself confessed to it after his arrest.
Sometime in 1981 while he was still in the boys' home, Sek was assigned work planting
orchids
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
in the garden of one household. That household happened to be that of Robert Tay. He was also given temporary employment in Tay's factory. It was this that led Sek to wanting to rob the wealthy businessman, culminating into the brutal triple killings at Andrew Road.
Nyu Kok Meng
Nyu Kok Meng (
Traditional Chinese
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays ...
: 饒國明;
Simplified Chinese
Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to:
Mathematics
Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example
* Simplification of algebraic expressions, ...
: 饶国明;
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
: ráo guómíng) is a Malaysian born sometime between 24 July 1963 and 23 July 1964. Nyu was the sixth child out of eight children; he had three older sisters, two older brothers and a younger brother and sister. All his older sisters were married and living in Singapore, and his 62-year-old father worked as a driver in Singapore. His hometown was in
Pekan Nanas,
Johor
Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the northwest. Johor shares maritime ...
.
According to Nyu's 42-year-old mother, her son was originally a well-behaved and helpful child, always working part-time in a rubber plantation while studying in secondary school to provide money for the family. Nyu eventually dropped out of school due to financial difficulties and having no time to study. After this, Nyu went to work in a
bakery
A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who w ...
nearby his hometown and became the caretaker of his boss's children, sending money to his family monthly before he left Malaysia to work as a
welder in Singapore in 1981.
It was there when Nyu gradually began to go astray, as he began to befriend and interact with secret society members and ignored his family's advice to not do so. One of the secret society members would later become his best friend, Lau Beng Hiong, whom Nyu told Mdm Tang he wanted to be buried with on that fateful day of 23 July 1983. Lau, who was 18 when he died, was killed by four members of a rival gang during a gang fight on 22 May 1983, two months before the Andrew Road incident.
[ Nyu, who only met Sek a few days before the Andrew Road case, agreed to take part in the robbery after Sek asked him to do so.
]
Sentencing
Dismissal of Nyu Kok Meng's murder charges
Both Sek Kim Wah and Nyu Kok Meng were initially set to stand trial for murder together. But on 8 July 1985, the prosecution, having gone through the details of the case, decided to withdraw the triple murder charges against Nyu, and instead charged him with committing armed robbery with a firearm under the Arms Offences Act
The Arms Offences Act 1973 is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that criminalizes the illegal possession of arms and ammunition and the carrying, trafficking, and usage of arms. The law is designed specifically to make acts of ownership ...
, which Nyu pleaded guilty to and was convicted of. The next day, Nyu Kok Meng, who was represented by prominent lawyer Leo Fernando, was sentenced to life imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane by High Court judge Punch Coomaraswamy
Punch Coomaraswamy (16 October 1925 – 8 January 1999) was a Singaporean judge, diplomat and politician who served as Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore between 1966 and 1970, and Singapore Ambassador to the United States between 1976 and ...
, who took note of Nyu's remorse, his full cooperation with the police and the fact that he had surrendered himself.[
Since a life sentence under Singapore law at that time was a jail term of 20 years (before the landmark judgement of Abdul Nasir bin Amer Hamsah's appeal on 20 August 1997, which changed the definition of life imprisonment to a term of incarceration for the rest of a prisoner's natural life with an entitlement for parole after serving at least 20 years), by maintaining good conduct while in prison, Nyu would be released sometime between December 1996 and November 1998 after serving at least two-thirds of his life term (13 years and 4 months), depending on when he started to serve his life sentence.
Regardless, it can be confirmed that by the end of 2005, Nyu Kok Meng had been released from jail and presumably returned to Malaysia.
]
Trial of Sek Kim Wah: The prosecution's case
On 22 July 1985, nearly two years after the Andrew Road triple homicide, 21-year-old Sek Kim Wah, who was represented by state-assigned defense lawyer Loh Lin Kok Loh may refer to:
People
* Betty Loh Ti (1937–1968), Chinese actress
* Christine Loh Kung-wai, Hong Kong university professor
* John M. Loh (born 1938), USAF Chief of Staff
* Loh Boon Siew (1915–1995), Penangite businessman
* Loh (Ramayana) ...
, stood trial in the High Court before two High Court judges Lai Kew Chai (who would deliver judgement on child murderer Took Leng How for the high-profile murder of 8-year-old Huang Na 20 years later) and Abdul Wahab Ghows for the murders of Robert Tay, Annie Low and Jovita Virador. Additionally, Sek faced two separate murder charges for the deaths of Lim Khee Sin and Ong Ah Hong at East Coast Park, for which he would stand trial at a later date.[ The trial attracted much public attention due to the sensational nature of the case, which shook the nation. The prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPP) Roy Neighbor and Tan Siong Thye, called on Sek's former accomplice Nyu Kok Meng, who agreed to take the stand and testify for the prosecution. Similarly, the two survivors of the Andrew Road case - Dawn Tay and her tutor Mdm Tang So Ha - also took the stand to recount what happened on the day itself.][
16 other witnesses, including the bank employees of the bank where Sek went to cash the cheque, also took the stand. Professor Chao Tzee Cheng, the pathologist who examined the bodies of the three victims, testified that both the women died from strangulation, and that they had been strangled with great force. He also testified that the reason for Tay's death was a fractured skull sustained from Sek's repeated strikes to his head. Lily Tay Noi Hiang (unrelated to the Tay family in the Andrew Road case), a 21-year-old lounge hostess from Golden Sultan Lounge and Sek's claimed girlfriend, was also a witness for the prosecution. She testified to the court that Sek, whom she first met on 14 July 1983, had been boasting to her about not just the murders he committed at Andrew Road, but also the unsolved ]East Coast Park
East Coast Park is a beach and a park encompassing Marine Parade, Bedok and Tampines, along the southeastern coast of Singapore. It was opened in the 1970s, after the Singapore government had completed reclaiming land off the coast at Katon ...
double murder of both Lim Khee Sin and Ong Ah Hong. He had also told her he wanted to surpass Singapore's most notorious gunman Lim Ban Lim, who was wanted in the 1960s and 1970s for killing a police officer in 1968 and many other crimes but was eventually gunned down by police in late November 1972.
When Lily Tay asked Sek if he was afraid of killing, he said no as he had killed five people, before laughing. She also said that Sek tried to impress her with gifts and wanted to make her his girlfriend but she refused because she already had a boyfriend and to her, Sek was merely a customer. Ng Hien Chong, alias Ah Tiong, a bouncer
A bouncer (also known as a doorman or door supervisor) is a type of security guard, employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs, cabaret clubs, stripclubs, casinos, hotels, billiard halls, restaurants, sporting events, schools, concerts, or ...
who worked in the same lounge as Lily Tay but had quit the job by the time of Sek's trial, also testified that Sek had told him about the five murders he committed, and had found out from Lily Tay that she had also received the same information from Sek. Lily Tay had once asked Ng if they should inform the police but Ng declined to do so, stating that Sek could have been lying about his killings.
Defence case
Sek's testimony
Sek Kim Wah took the stand on 26 July 1985. Initially blaming Nyu Kok Meng for killing one of the victims and stating he had no intention to kill, Sek later admitted on the stand that he had murdered all three victims, but claimed diminished responsibility. When he was asked how he felt when strangling Annie Low, Sek brought up an incident in 1980 or 1981 when he was strangled by someone at the Singapore Boys’ Home until he blacked out. Sek said: “At first I felt discomfort. Then it was very thrilling... as if the lights were being switched on and off.” He described feeling thrilled when he strangled his victims, and stated he enjoyed it. He also said he wanted to electrocute
Electrocution is death or severe injury caused by electric shock from electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death.
The term "electrocution" was coined ...
the victims but forgot to turn on the electricity, and hence he electrocuted the goldfish
The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the wild have bec ...
reared in Tay's bungalow instead. When asked by Justice Lai why he did that, Sek said he did not know, but said the more he tried everything, the more thrilling it became. Additionally, he told the court why he killed the victims: he said Robert Tay had recognized his voice and face; Sek was initially elated at Tay's recognition but eventually it occurred to him that he had to silence the victims. Not only did he recount how he strangled the couple at East Coast Park the month before he killed the three victims at Andrew Road, Sek also said in court that he wanted to be like Rambo
Rambo is a surname with Norwegian (Vestfold) and Swedish origins. It possibly originated with '' ramn'' + '' bo'', meaning "raven's nest". It has variants in French (''Rambeau'', ''Rambaut'', and ''Rimbaud'') and German (''Rambow''). It is now best ...
, the hero in the film First Blood, with whom Sek identified as a good person wrongfully accused by the police. He even said he wanted to kill at least 15 policemen, due to his hatred towards them.
During his defense Sek also brought up his painful, unhappy childhood, blaming his parents for being uncaring and irresponsible, and for making him the person he had become. He expressed no love or care for his father, and no love for his mother (though he claimed more or less concern for her well-being). His family members - his parents and brother in particular - took the stand and their testimonies partially corroborated Sek's own account of his childhood. Sek's parents, Sek Yuon Chin and Hoh Mooi Chai said that what Sek claimed was generally true, though they added that they had told him and their other children to not be bad children; while testifying in court, they expressed their remorse for not paying more attention to their children's well-being and education.[
Sek's siblings and Sek's elder brother in-law Lau Puay Cheow (also spelled Low Puay Cheow) also told the court that they were shocked when they first found out Sek's involvement in the murders.][ In addition, Sek's brother Kim Siong stated that while Sek deserved the consequences for what he did and should shoulder all the responsibility for his crimes, he also acknowledged his parents' negligence and ostracisation by society; Kim Siong nevertheless affirmed his love for his brother and parents.][
The defense also raised another incident that supposedly pushed Sek over the edge and culminated in the murders. Sek was said to be suffering unrequited love with a coffee shop owner's daughter. Even though the girl saw him only as a friend, she would reprimand him whenever he did wrong. About three days before he killed Lim Khee Sin and Ong Ah Hong, she had sent him a letter which made Sek believe that she had rejected his feelings for her. As Sek claimed, "After receiving the letter I had the impression that there was no one to supervise me and I could do whatever I liked. I was frustrated. I like someone to exercise control over me, to care and look after me. But all they are interested in is money. Since everybody is busy about money, I would get it by hook or by crook and the more the merrier."][
]
Sek's defence of diminished responsibility
Sek Kim Wah's lawyer, Loh Lin Kok, called upon two psychiatric experts, Australian psychiatrist Dr. John Ellard and notable Singaporean psychiatrist Dr. Wong Yip Chong (who acted as expert witness to support the defence of diminished responsibility for notorious child killer Adrian Lim) to testify for Sek in support of his defence of diminished responsibility. Dr Ellard, who first examined Sek, stated that he was of the opinion that from Sek's lack of remorse for his crimes and his painful childhood and many other factors, Sek was suffering from anti-social personality disorder
Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD or infrequently APD) is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of disregard of, or violation of, the rights of others as well as a difficulty sustaining long-term relationships. Lack ...
. Dr. Wong, who examined Sek later, stated that he agreed with Dr. Ellard's report, though he added that he felt that Sek was also suffering from psychopathic personality disorder, with his unhappy childhood as the main contributing factor, and aggravated by Sek's high-intelligence IQ level of 113.[
In rebuttal, the prosecution called upon government psychiatrist Dr. Chew Seck Kee, who testified that Sek was not suffering from any mental disorders, as Sek was rational and lucid, able to give a clear account of himself and his crimes, and as he himself said, he had to kill his victims to prevent them from reporting him, which showed that Sek, whom he described as "cold-blooded and cruel", was clearly and fully aware of himself and in full control of his actions. Additionally, Dr. Chew also said that Sek did in fact express some degree of remorse over his actions but also felt that it was too late for regrets. In addition, the prosecution also proved that Sek's claim of being strangled at the boys' homes was not true - Sek had in fact fabricated that story to support his defence of diminished responsibility.
]
Verdict
On 14 August 1985, after hearing the closing submissions from the defence and the prosecution, the two judges - Justice Lai Kew Chai and Justice Abdul Wahab Ghows - gave their final verdict, with Justice Lai delivering the judgement. In their written verdict, Justice Lai stated that they both found Sek Kim Wah not of unsound mind at the time of the murders, based on their review of the evidence presented to them. They found that Sek had killed Robert Tay, Annie Low and Jovita Virador with the intention to cause death. Hence, they rejected Sek's defence of diminished responsibility and found him guilty of all the three murders at Andrew Road, and sentenced him to death, ending the 17-day long trial of Sek Kim Wah. Under Singapore law at that time, the crime of murder carried a mandatory sentence of death by long drop hanging (the standard execution method which Singapore adopts until today).
Upon hearing that he would be hanged, Sek smiled and thanked the judges in Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
, stating that he wanted to die in the gallows, and saying that it would be thrilling. None of Sek's family members were present at the hearing for the sentence.[
]
Fate of Sek Kim Wah
Appeal and dismissal
After his conviction and sentencing, Sek Kim Wah filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence. It took more than a year before 22-year-old Sek Kim Wah's appeal was finally brought before the Court of Appeal on 16 March 1987 and heard by three judges - Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin
Wee Chong Jin (; 28 September 1917 – 5 June 2005) was a Malayan-born Singaporean judge who served as the first chief justice of Singapore between 1963 and 1990, appointed by President Yusof Ishak.
Born in Penang, Malaysia, he was the firs ...
, High Court judge A. P. Rajah and Judicial Commissioner Chan Sek Keong
Chan Sek Keong (born 5 November 1937) is a Malayan-born Singaporean retired judge who served as the third chief justice of Singapore between 2006 and 2012, appointed by President S. R. Nathan. Prior to his appointment as chief justice, he se ...
. In the appeal, Sek's lawyer Loh Lin Kok argued that the two judges in Sek's original trial had erred in rejecting Sek's claim of diminished responsibility and the combined evidence of both Dr John Ellard and Dr Wong Yip Chong on Sek's testimony, along with its significance. Mr Loh also brought up the fact mentioned by the two judges that the first psychiatric witness Dr Ellard presented his opinion through "Australian spectacles" when the symptoms displayed by patients of personality disorders are universally relatively similar, a fact which the two judges had erred in finding, Mr Loh said.
Mr Loh further argued in the appeal that the two judges did not state, even on the balance of probabilities, whether they accepted the prosecution's psychiatric expert witness Dr Chew Seck Kee's evidence and findings against those of the two defence psychiatrists. He even pointed out that the judges did not rely much on the evidence of Dr Wong that Sek was also suffering from enuresis, up till the age of 16, which was a symptom of personality disorder (a fact presented by Dr Wong in the original trial).
After hearing the appeal, a day later, on 17 March 1987, the three-judge Court of Appeal released their verdict, read by Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin. The three judges dismissed Sek Kim Wah's appeal and upheld both the conviction and sentence. Chief Justice Wee pointed out that whatever method Dr Ellard used to make his medical findings, it was based on whatever facts that were presented to him; it could be that the doctor had given all the facts he knew of in his testimony but some of them turned out to be untrue. The trial judges, in their original verdict, had rejected the defence's arguments that the findings of the psychiatrists were based on reliable facts. "It was a matter for the trial judges to decide after assessing the facts and medical evidence whether the facts the psychiatrists relied upon were true," said the Chief Justice. He also cited that this was the same reason why the trial judges rejected Dr Wong's testimony as well. The court also told Mr Loh that they could not accept his assertion that Sek was mentally abnormal despite the "great perseverance" in making his arguments. In dismissing the appeal, the final words from the Chief Justice was, "We are not persuaded at all that the trial judges were not entitled to make the finding they did." Sek was reportedly calm throughout the appeal process and the reading of the Court of Appeal's judgement.
Execution and funeral
On 9 December 1988, more than five years after the Andrew Road murders, as well as the unrelated East Coast Park double murder case, 24-year-old Sek Kim Wah was hanged on the state gallows of Changi Prison
Changi Prison Complex, often known simply as Changi Prison, is a prison in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore.
History First prison
Before Changi Prison was constructed, the only penal facility in Singapore was at Pearl's Hill, beside ...
for the murders of his five victims. Sek's execution came only two weeks after the hanging of the three convicted child murderers ( Adrian Lim, Catherine Tan Mui Choo and Hoe Kah Hong) of the notorious 1981 Toa Payoh ritual murders
The Toa Payoh ritual murders took place in Singapore in 1981. On 25 January, the body of a nine-year-old girl was found at a block of public housing flats in the town of Toa Payoh, and two weeks later, the body of a ten-year-old boy was ...
case on 25 November of that same year he was hanged. The executioner who carried out Sek's hanging was veteran hangman Darshan Singh.[
Sek's body was later cremated at ]Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...
Crematorium
A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...
. Despite Sek's final wish to have his ashes scattered into the sea, they were stored in an urn in Siong Lim Temple at Toa Payoh
Toa Payoh (, ta, தோ பாயோ) is a planning area and matured residential town located in the northern part of the Central Region of Singapore. Toa Payoh planning area borders Bishan and Serangoon to the north, the Central Water Catc ...
, where a simple funeral was held for Sek in accordance to Taoist
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...
practices. The funeral was attended by Sek's parents and siblings.
In popular media
Re-enactment
Approximately 20 years after the Andrew Road case, it was re-enacted in a Singaporean crime show True Files
''True Files'' (Chinese: 真实档案) is an English language television docu-drama telecast on MediaCorp Channel 5, with each episode (except the last episode of Season 3, ''The Unsolved'') re-enacting major court proceedings, mostly of murder, ...
(which ran for five seasons and a total of 62 episodes). The re-enactment was first broadcast as the second episode of the show's second season on 2 September 2003. The show is currently viewable via meWATCH
meWATCH is a Singaporean digital video on demand service brand owned by Mediacorp. It was launched on 1 February 2013 as an over-the-top media service and an entertainment and lifestyle website Toggle.
On 1 April 2015, xinmsn, an internet port ...
since 5 February 2016.
In the episode broadcasting the re-enactment, the former lawyers of both Sek Kim Wah and Nyu Kok Meng - Loh Lin Kok (Sek's lawyer) and Leo Fernando (Nyu's lawyer) - were interviewed on-screen. Fernando, who appeared on the episode first, stated that he believed there was no common intention between his client and Sek to commit the three murders at Andrew Road despite their plan to rob the Tay family. He said that when both the survivors Dawn Tay and the tutor Tang So Ha came to the court to give their accounts, they expressed gratitude to his client (Nyu) for shielding them from Sek's murderous rampage. Loh, who appeared later, stated that his client (Sek), throughout the court proceedings, did not show any tinge of remorse at all for his actions. He, in his opinion, called his client the "number one killer" in the history of Singapore in respect to all the killings he committed.
On 12 March 2022, a five-episode crime series titled "''Inside Crime Scene''" re-enacted the two cases of Sek Kim Wah as its first episode, and the full series were released on meWATCH since the same date the episode was released. The episode covers the cases, as well as the experts' opinion on the mind of Sek, whom they considered as Singapore's first serial killer in legal history.
Publication
The murders at Andrew Road was considered a notable crime that shook Singapore. In July 2015, Singapore's national daily newspaper ''The Straits Times
''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...
'' published a e-book titled ''Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965'', which included the Andrew Road triple murder case as one of the top 25 crimes that shocked the nation since its independence in 1965. The book was borne out of collaboration between the Singapore Police Force and the newspaper itself. The e-book was edited by ST News Associate editor Abdul Hafiz bin Abdul Samad
Abdul (also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as Abdal, Abdel, Abdil, Abdol, Abdool, or Abdoul; ar, عبد ال, ) is the most frequent transliteration of the combination of the Arabic word ''Abd (Arabic), Abd'' (, meaning "Servant") and th ...
. The paperback edition of the book was published and first hit bookshelves in June 2017. The paperback edition first entered the ST bestseller list on 8 August 2017, a month after publication.[
]
See also
*Capital punishment in Singapore
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Singapore. Executions are carried out by long drop hanging, and usually take place at dawn. 33 offences— including murder, drug trafficking, terrorism, use of firearms and kidnapping — warrant the ...
* Life imprisonment in Singapore
Life imprisonment is a legal penalty in Singapore. This sentence is applicable for more than forty offences under Singapore law (including the Penal Code, the Kidnapping Act and Arms Offences Act), such as culpable homicide not amounting to murd ...
*Caning in Singapore
Caning is a widely used form of corporal punishment in Singapore. It can be divided into several contexts: judicial, prison, reformatory, military, school, and domestic. These practices of caning as punishment were introduced during the period ...
*List of serial killers by country
This is a list of notable serial killers, by the country where most of the killings occurred.
Convicted serial killers by country Afghanistan
*Abdullah Shah: killed at least 20 travelers on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad while serving under ...
Notes
References
Further reading
* {{Cite book, last=Abdul Samad , first=Abdul Hafiz , title=Guilty as Charged: 25 Crimes that Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965, year=2017 , publisher=Straits Times Press Pte Ltd , isbn=978-9814642996, ref={{SfnRef, Abdul Samad, 2017
Murder in Singapore
People murdered in Singapore
1983 murders in Singapore
Capital murder cases
Malaysian people imprisoned abroad
Singaporean people convicted of murder
Life imprisonment in Singapore