Brother gets life in prison for role in trio's fatal torture of starved 19-year-old sister

A man who physically abused and starved his younger sister until her death in 2021 was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday (Nov 5) for murder.

According to court documents seen by AsiaOne, Huang Bocan, 34, was part of a trio that meted out punishments to 19-year-old Huang Baoying over her performance in selling Herbalife products.

The teen died on May 5, 2021, after one such punishment where she was beaten, tied up, had salt poured on a wound and drenched with water from a toilet tap.

She weighed just 27.6kg then, with the cause of death reportedly being severe malnutrition and extensive blunt force trauma.

Huang is the second person in the trio to be sentenced.

The first perpetrator, the siblings' landlord, Lim Peng Tiong, was jailed for 14 years and 11 months in May for a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The case of Huang's girlfriend, Chee Mei Wan, who ran the company selling Herbalife products and acted as a "coach", is still pending.

Chee and the Huang siblings began living in the same Clementi flat owned by Lim in the second half of 2020.

In October that year, Chee created a financial punishment system to correct bad habits, which Lim and the siblings were subject to.

This soon turned into physical punishment in the form of hand raises and squats, with Baoying reportedly punished most for her "mistakes".

From January 2021, Bocan began giving his sister a weekly sum of only $20 to $30 for one meal each day.

Baoying was also disallowed to leave home on multiple occasions, with Bocan once cutting her long hair before forcing her out.

In February, he and Chee began confining her in the toilet for long period.

Around the same time, the trio started hitting her with a wooden stick.

For almost the whole of March, the teen was confined to the toilet. She was later chained up to stop her from leaving to look for food.

In April to May, she was deprived of food for days and only allowed to drink water.

On the night of May 4, 2021, a weakened Baoying could not perform squats, and she was beaten again for lying about it, and Bocan and Chee interpreted her silence as defiance.

The trio then reportedly subjected her to the water torture and sprinkled salt on a wound.

Baoying was found unresponsive after midnight on May 5, 2021.

Bocan called 995 later in the morning.

He had also deleted photographs and videos of his sister's injuries from his phone, as well as audio recordings of the victim being scolded.

A psychiatrist assesed that Bocan did not have mental illness and was not of unsound mind.

lim.kewei@asiaone.com

一名男子因虐待和饿死其妹妹直至其于 2021 年死亡，于周四（11 月 5 日）被判处终身监禁，罪名是谋杀。

据 AsiaOne 看到的法庭文件显示，34 岁的黄伯灿是三人之一，他们因 19 岁的黄宝英销售康宝莱产品的表现而对她进行了处罚。

这名少女于 2021 年 5 月 5 日去世，此前她遭受了一次这样的惩罚：她被殴打、捆绑，伤口上被撒盐，还被马桶水龙头里的水浇透。

她当时体重只有 27.6 公斤，据报道死因是严重营养不良和广泛的钝器外伤。

黄是三人中第二个被判刑的人。

第一名作案者，这对兄妹的房东林鹏忠，于 5 月因过失杀人罪（未构成谋杀）被判处 14 年 11 个月监禁。

黄的女友谢美婉（音译）经营着一家销售康宝莱产品的公司，并担任“教练”，她的案件仍在审理中。

Chee 和 Huang 兄妹于 2020 年下半年开始居住在 Lim 拥有的位于金文泰的同一套公寓里。

同年10月，Chee制定了一项经济惩罚制度来纠正不良习惯，Lim和他的兄弟姐妹们都受到了这项制度的惩罚。

不久之后，惩罚就变成了举手和下蹲等体罚，据说宝英因为“犯错”而受到的惩罚最多。

从 2021 年 1 月起，博坎开始每周只给妹妹 20 到 30 美元，作为她每天的一顿饭钱。

宝英也曾多次被禁止离开家，博灿甚至在把她赶出家门前剪掉了她的长发。

二月份，他和Chee开始长时间把她关在厕所里。

差不多同一时间，三人开始用木棍殴打她。

整个三月份的大部分时间里，这名少女都被限制在厕所里。后来，她被用铁链锁住，以防止她外出寻找食物。

四月到五月期间，她连续几天没有食物，只被允许喝水。

2021年5月4日晚，身体虚弱的宝英无法做深蹲，她为此撒谎，再次遭到殴打，而宝灿和琪则将她的沉默解读为反抗。

据报道，这三人随后对她进行了水刑，并在她的伤口上撒盐。

2021年5月5日凌晨，宝英被发现失去意识。

当天上午晚些时候，博坎拨打了995报警电话。

他还删除了手机中妹妹受伤的照片和视频，以及受害者被责骂的录音。

精神科医生评估后认为，博坎没有精神疾病，精神状态正常。

lim.kewei@asiaone.com