SHAH ALAM – A 19-year-old woman who weighed only 27.6kg at her death had been starved and tortured for more than two months by a man she met through a multi-level marketing (MLM) club selling nutritional supplements, the Singapore High Court hears.
According to The Straits Times, Huang Baoying died on May 5, 2021, from the final acts of abuse carried out on her inside a flat at Block 602 Clementi West Street 1.
It was reported that the act allegedly also involved her older brother and his married girlfriend.
In her final hours, Baoying was repeatedly beaten with a wooden stick, forced to sit upright with her hands tied and raised above her head and had salt rubbed into an open wound on her leg.
The court was told that she was also drenched under a running tap for about 15 minutes before being left on a mattress in the living room.
She later died from a combination of severe malnutrition, sepsis and extensive blunt force trauma.
An autopsy revealed that she had lost 43 per cent of her body weight over 11 months, dropping from 48.8kg in June 2020 to 27.6kg at the time of her death.
On Feb 9, Lim Peng Tiong, a member of an MLM club selling Herbalife products, pleaded guilty to an amended charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for causing Baoying's death.
He admitted to beating her about 240 times with a wooden stick on May 1, 2021, allegedly acting on instructions from their MLM coach, Chee Mei Wan, 46.
Prosecutors stated that Baoying was "tortured for no other reason than some twisted project to purportedly ‘improve’ her behaviour."
They said Chee had introduced a punishment system involving fines and physical discipline to "correct" habits she believed were affecting product sales and commissions.
The court heard that Chee, who was married at the time, was in a romantic relationship with Baoying's brother, Huang Bocan, 34.
The punishment regime allegedly escalated into prolonged torture, with Baoying targeted the most as she was perceived to be undisciplined and performed poorly in sales.
Between Feb 16 and May 4, 2021, Baoying was deprived of food, confined in a toilet for extended periods and beaten despite being weak and injured.
From April 2021 onwards, she was sometimes denied food for days and allowed only water.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh argued that Lim should be jailed for 20 years, stating that while he may not have been as culpable as Chee and Bocan, he had actively endorsed and participated in the abuse while providing an environment for it to continue undetected.
Lim’s lawyer, Kate Loo, sought an 11-year jail term, saying her client was also subjected to the punishment regime, did not decide on the penalties imposed and had been "brainwashed" by his accomplices.
The case will be heard again on March 2 for further submissions.
Both Chee and Bocan are facing murder charges, with their cases still pending in court.
All three were initially charged with voluntarily causing grievous hurt before the charges were upgraded to murder.