Authors: Alex Josey
Relating how the idea of robbing Ngo was
mooted, Mr Rajendran said that from June 1969, Ngo had been making purchases of
gold from the United Overseas Bank (UOB). In 1971, Ngo started exporting gold
bars through Andrew who worked with Air Vietnam. Ngo would hand the gold to
Andrew at Andrew’s house and Andrew would in turn pass the gold to the crew of
Air Vietnam. Either Leong or Ang (Ngo’s employees) or both of them would assist
Ngo in making these deliveries. For every kilo of gold he handed Andrew, Ngo
paid him US$5: the crew of the aircraft paid him US$10 per kilogram. Andrew
also delivered gold bars on behalf of Chee Pui Cheng, proprietor of Eastern
Watch Company, and Lee Bor, proprietor of Lee Tong Heng Import and Export.
Mr Rajendran said things changed after the
US$235,000 were stolen in October by certain members of the airport staff. Most
of the money was recovered, but relations between Andrew and the gold-exporting
syndicates became strained. His income down, Andrew decided to rob and kill
Ngo. Augustine and Peter were asked to look for a few boys to do the job. Peter
was detailed to look for a suitable hiding place for the gold bars. On 20
November, Peter rounded up Stephen Lee, Alex Yau, Fernando Lee Beng Hong,
William Soo Ah Seng, and a certain Anchor. That night at a coffee stall at
Nicoll Drive in Changi, the Chou brothers explained the plan. They were to do
the job in the house. Mr Rajendran said that although Fernando and Anchor
agreed to take part, they had decided almost from the start that they would not
take part in the killing but would only play along to get some money. In early
December, they backed out and four more youths were chosen. They were Ringo
Lee, Richard James, Stephen Francis and Konesekaram. One of them suggested that
instead of burying the corpses, they dump them into a well in Changi. Andrew,
Peter, Stephen, Alex, James and Augustine drove to Changi to see the well in
Stephen’s father’s car the following night. They failed to reach it because the
car had a punctured tyre.
On 29 December, the night of the murder, on
being told that $500,000 worth of gold bars were to be delivered to his house,
Andrew told Augustine to round up his men. The group gathered in the Chou
brothers’ yard behind the kitchen at 11:30
pm
.
Pieces of cloth were hung up to prevent people from looking into the yard.
Andrew lifted a food cover on a table and showed the boys the nylon ropes that
were to be used for strangling and tying up the victims. Mr Rajendran described
how the three men were murdered and their bodies thrown into the back seat of a
Volkswagen. The car was driven away and the bodies disposed of in Changi. The
next morning, they were found by the police following an anonymous ‘999’ call.
On 2 January, 115 gold bars were recovered from Catherine Tay’s house and five
were found in David’s office.
On the second day of the inquiry, a former
airport employee at Singapore’s Paya Lebar Airport, Chua Nguan Key, then a
hawker, told how he found a bag full of American currency in a driver’s cabin
of a mobile gangway. The money was in US$50 and US$100 notes. He hid them in a
dustbin near his home in Jalan Peria, off Jalan Eunos. Chua said he had never
seen so much money in all his life. He could not sleep that night thinking
about it. Two days later, the Chou brothers and Augustine came to his house
looking for the money. The next day he returned the money wrapped in paper at
Andrew’s house. Andrew was jubilant, but the following day he came back to
Chua’s house and said that some of the notes were missing. Chua said he
promised to try to find them. Chua said he consequently went back to the
dustbin and poured out its contents. Among the debris he found nine travellers’
cheques and a few small packets containing American dollar notes and more
travellers’ cheques. The total value came to more than US$40,000. The next day
he took them to Andrew. Andrew was happy.
Dr Chao Tze Cheng, forensic pathologist from
Outram Road Hospital, gave evidence that Ngo, Leong and Ang had been strangled
to death. They must have died within one to three minutes. He found green nylon
ropes round the necks of Ngo and Leong. Ngo had 14 wounds. Ang’s scalp was
bruised and some of his ribs broken. His jaw was broken. His spine was
fractured at the neck.
On the third day of the inquiry, Goh Cheng
Hong, wife of Ngo, told the magistrate that when her husband failed to return
home she suspected he had been kidnapped. “I never for a moment imagined he
would be killed.” She thought her husband had been waylaid and held captive
while on his way to deliver the 120 gold bars. “I thought my husband’s
disappearance had something to do with his association with many secret
societies. This was because my husband kept a woman, one Rose Chan Mui Huat,
living in Katong, to whom he had to pay $500 a month.” Madam Goh said when she
returned home from Andrew’s home she telephoned her friends and told them she
could not find her husband. “They told me he had probably gone scouting for
girls. I did not mention the gold bars,” she said.
Testifying on the fourth day of the inquiry,
Catherine Tay (45 years old) described herself as a broker who helped dispose
of 10 of the 120 stolen gold bars. She said she expected a commission for
selling them. Augustine Ang had asked her to sell them for him. The buyer was
Tan Kay Wah, alias Mohamed Amin bin Abdullah of North Bridge Road. When he paid
her $40,000, she made a hole in a pillow and stuffed as much as she could into
the pillow, stitched the hole, and put the balance, between $5,000 and $6,000,
in a tin.
On the fifth day of the inquiry, Augustine
Ang, the key witness, demonstrated how Andrew Chou and his brother, David,
choked Ngo to death. Mr David Marshall volunteered to play the role of Ngo. Mr
Marshall took off his jacket and lay down on the floor of the Court. Augustine
lay beside him and slipped his right hand around counsel’s neck. Joining hands,
Augustine neck-locked Mr Marshall and started choking him. The magistrate
recorded his observation of the demonstration. Back in the witness box,
Augustine said Andrew Chou choked Ngo in this way. He said he saw David Chou
doing the same thing to Leong.
Augustine said: “At one stage I remember
David suggested we use a rope to strangle the victims, but Andrew said it would
be preferable to use an iron rod wrapped in cloth.”
Replying to counsel’s questions, Augustine
said he took part in the triple slayings because he ‘wanted to become rich’. He
added that it was on the advice of his counsel that he decided to testify
against his friends. Asked if his motive was to ‘save your neck’, he replied
that he was not prepared to perjure himself. He denied he had been assured of a
‘free pardon or a release from detention’.
Counsel: Have you turned over a new
leaf since detention?
Augustine: That is a very personal
question.
Magistrate: Answer it.
Augustine: Yes.
Konesekaram’s voluntary statement made to a
magistrate, Mr Richard Magnus, was read out on the seventh day of the inquiry.
In it he denied that he and five of his
friends were responsible for the death of Ngo and his assistants. The Chou
brothers and Augustine murdered them. “I and my friends were to remove three
dead bodies and then bury them. There would be a payment of $8,000.” For his
part in the disposal of the bodies he received $1,000.
On the eighth day of the inquiry, the
statement voluntarily made by Richard James to Mr Richard Magnus was read out.
James wrote: “After a while we heard sounds like someone being choked. When we
came out of the kitchen, we saw two bodies behind the back door. There was a
body near the fence. I kicked the nearest body. There was no sound. I stooped
and delivered a few punches. Still no sound. I looked at the fence. There was a
body. That man was calling for help. I saw Andrew and David using karate chops
on his neck.” He said the bodies were piled up in a Volkswagen. “We drove to Bedok.
We threw the bodies away.” After he was paid, “we went out to enjoy. We went to
nightclubs.”
A third confession by Stephen Francis was
tendered by another magistrate, Mr Chandra Mohan. “We were all sitting in the
kitchen. I heard a shout for help. We all came out. I saw a body lying in front
of the kitchen. Another body was lying nearby. David said, ‘Take the string and
tie his neck.’ I kicked the cheek of the body lying in front of the kitchen
face downwards. There was no sound. David told me to take a string and tie his
neck. I and Konis took the string and tugged at his neck with it. David said,
‘Faster. Tie his hands too.’ On the left side I saw David and Augustine
kneeling while David used a karate chop on the neck of a man lying beside the
first body. I heard a car door slam. The neighbour was coming home. David and
Augustine pulled a third body and placed it near the first. David took a cloth
and covered the three bodies. He used two pieces of cloth to block the lights
from the kitchen.”
Extracts from a fourth confession made by
Ringo Lee before Mr Chandra Mohan on 12 January 1972 were also read out. Ringo
said he knew nothing about the gold bar robbery. He heard sounds of assault and
cries of pain. When Andrew called out, ‘I gave two or three blows to the
abdomen of one of the three people. This man shouted when I punched him. Two of
the three people were already knocked out. Andrew asked me and Stephen to make
sure they were dead. Each one of us pulled at one end of the rope. I saw the
person I had hit was motionless. Konis and Stephen strangled another man who
was already dead. I tied the hands of the person I had strangled.’ All four
confessions were challenged by defence counsel at the inquiry.
***
On 16 May, all nine men charged with the
murder of Ngo and his two assistants were committed to stand trial in the High
Court. At the close of the nine-day inquiry, the Senior State Counsel, Mr S.
Rajendran, tendered three amended charges in place of the original two. The
amended charges accused them of murdering Ngo and his two assistants, Leong and
Ang, of being members of an illegal assembly whose common object was to cause
the deaths of Ngo and the others, and that one or more members of this assembly
consequently committed murder by causing the death of Ngo, Leong and Ang. All
the accused reserved their defence. They were ordered to be remanded pending
trial. Detective Inspector Oh Chye Bee told the Court he had seized $175,000
from Stephen Lee and $1,800 from Alex Yau.
Eight years later, Oh was himself charged
with misappropriating $3,550 of the money. The money was found to be missing in
1979 when the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau studied the investigation
papers.
THE TRIAL WAS FIXED FOR 9 OCTOBER,
but in September it was announced that Mr Francis Seow had withdrawn from the
case as lawyer for the Chou brothers. Mr Wong Peng Khoon was assigned to defend
Andrew Chou and Mr Giam Chin Toon was assigned to defend David Chou. Mr Govinda
Gopalan defended Peter Lim; Mr Leo Fernando appeared for Alex Yau; Mr John Tan
Chor Yong for Ringo Lee and Stephen Lee; and Mr N.C. Goho for Richard James,
Stephen Francis and Konesekaram. Mr T.W. Ong held a watching brief for Mr J.
Sadasivan, an airline station manager; Mr S.K. Lee for Goh Cheng Hong (widow of
Ngo), Cheong Kim Seng (a witness) and three gold dealers, Chin Yam, Lee Bor and
Mah Liong Kim; and Mr P. Suppiah for the prosecution witness, Augustine Ang.
Mr A.W. Ghows, the Solicitor-General,
prosecuted. The two brothers and the seven youths appeared before Justice Chua,
presiding, and Justice Choor Singh. They all pleaded not guilty.
In his opening address, Mr Ghows said that
since June 1969, Ngo had bought gold from the United Overseas Bank as a
mandatory of Gui Liat Koh, a foreign national. In 1971, Ngo exported gold
through Andrew Chou, but in October that year, after a bag containing money for
Andrew was stolen, the syndicates stopped doing business with Andrew but went
to Ngo. In early November, Andrew and David formed the idea of robbing and
killing whoever sent the next consignment of gold bars. They discussed this
plot with Augustine Ang and Peter Lim, who were asked to look for a few boys to
do the job for $20,000. The case for the prosecution was that Ngo and his two
assistants were beaten up and strangled to death in the Chous’ home when they
delivered 120 gold bars at about midnight on 29 December. Mr Ghows was assisted
by two Deputy Public Prosecutors, Mr Loh Lin Kok and Mr Ong Jin Hoe.
Mr N.C. Goho, defence counsel, suggested
that the four confessions were made after the four men had been placed on a
starvation diet of one meal a day consisting of a small amount of rice and an
old fish. Inspector Oh denied this. He said the prisoners were given three
meals a day. All nine men told the Court that they had been beaten up by the
police and forced to give information and make statements. Stephen Lee said
that a detective pointed a gun at his back during interrogation and threatened
to shoot him if he did not tell the truth. He said when he turned around to
look at the detective, another detective hit him with a piece of wood. Stephen
Lee said Detective Oh slapped him several times. On the third day, he said,
Inspector Oh’s attitude changed and he became very friendly and offered him
cake and coffee. He told him not to be afraid because he was wanted only as a
prosecution witness. He said later he was told he was not wanted as a witness
because he did not know how to give evidence. Oh told him Augustine Ang would
be a better speaker. “Further, he told me I need not be afraid as I would not
be hanged because I was only 16 or 17 years old.”