A man who starved and repeatedly beat his 19-year-old sister was sentenced to life imprisonment on 5 November 2026 for her murder.
Huang Bocan did not dispute the prosecution’s account of the case and chose not to contest the murder charge in the High Court.
His sister, Huang Baoying, died on 5 May 2021 after prolonged abuse in a Clementi West Street 1 flat. She weighed just 27.6kg, down from a previously recorded 48.8kg, a loss of about 43 per cent of her body weight.
An autopsy found severe malnutrition and extensive blunt force injuries. Baoying also had a large infected wound on her right leg.
Food Withheld And Repeated Beatings
The court heard that the siblings met Lim Peng Tiong and Chee Mei Wan through Chee’s nutritional products business in 2018. Chee later became Bocan’s girlfriend.
The siblings moved into Lim’s home in July 2020, and Chee subsequently joined them.
Court documents described a system of punishments supposedly intended to improve behaviour and sales performance. Baoying was repeatedly beaten, deprived of food and confined in a toilet, where she was chained to a railing.
Bocan also initiated some punishments. He limited his sister to one meal a day, claiming that hunger would teach her gratitude.
Her condition deteriorated, but she continued to be made to exercise despite becoming weak.
Baoying was found unresponsive in the early hours of 5 May 2021. Bocan called 995 at about 6:02am and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, before paramedics arrived.
She was pronounced dead at the scene. Paramedics noticed her injuries and alerted the police.
Life Sentence Without Caning
The defence asked for life imprisonment, saying Bocan accepted responsibility and regretted failing to protect his sister and participating in the abuse. The prosecution did not oppose that sentence or seek caning.
The judge imposed life imprisonment without caning, with the sentence backdated to 5 May 2021.
Mothership reported that the judge rejected the defence’s argument that Bocan had thought he was helping his sister, describing that thinking as “clearly misguided and perverse”.
The judge also noted that emergency help was sought only hours after Baoying was found unresponsive.
Another Man Already Jailed
Lim was sentenced on 25 May 2026 to 14 years and 11 months’ jail after admitting culpable homicide not amounting to murder, an offence of unlawfully causing death that is legally distinct from murder.
His sentence included six additional months in place of caning because he was over 50 and could not be caned.
Chee’s case remains before the courts.
