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Man who planned attack on uncle's love rival sentenced to 3 years' jail, caning

Singapore’s State Courts. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)
Singapore’s State Courts. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

A man who helped an uncle arrange an attack on his love rival was on Wednesday (21 March) sentenced to 36 months’ jail and four strokes of the cane.

Ron Lim De Mai, 25, helped Lim Hong Liang, a 54-year-old director of a logistics company, plan an attack on the boyfriend of his uncle’s mistress with four other men and a woman in 2016.

Lim, who is married, pleaded guilty last month to one count of engaging in a conspiracy with five others to voluntarily cause grievous hurt to Koh with an instrument. Another count of voluntarily causing grievous hurt was taken into consideration for his sentencing.

Lim entered into a relationship with his lover, Audrey Chen Ying Fang, 26, after becoming acquainted with her in 2014. Chen entered into a romantic relationship with Joshua Koh Kian Yong in 2016 while she was still with Lim.

Chen was unaware that Lim had installed a Global Positioning System in the Mercedes-Benz car that he gave to her in order to track her movements. In late 2015, Lim asked Ron to track Chen and paid him $100 each time his nephew did.

After Lim discovered that Chen was in a relationship with Koh in April 2016, Lim instructed Ron to arrange for Koh to be assaulted.

Ron then approached an acquaintance, 47-year-old Ong Hock Chye, to fulfill his uncle’s request. Ron told Ong that Lim wanted Koh’s hands and legs broken for dating Chen. After Ong found a few people to help in executing the plan, Ron paid him $2,000 that he received from Lim. Ron suggested that Ong use a pen knife to slash Koh’s face instead as it was easier to carry out and would leave a permanent mark on Koh’s face.

Lim later handed over another $8,000 for the people to carry out the attack, along with a few photographs of Koh.

Sometime in the evening of 29 April 2016, three men drove to Oasia Hotel Novena after tracking Chen’s Mercedes. A few hours later, the trio spotted Chen and Koh heading to a Mercedes car and tailed them to Townshend Road, where the couple had supper at Huay Kwang Thia Kitchen.

At around 1.07am on 30 April, the three approached the restaurant. One man began punching Koh while another slashed him on the face. The three then fled the scene in a car. The attack on Koh was captured by CCTVs at the restaurant.

The prosecution sought at least five and a half years’ jail and six strokes of the cane for Lim, a sentence which District Judge Kessler Soh described as “manifestly excessive”.

DJ Soh said even though there was a significant degree of planning, the attack on Koh constituted a single slash on his lips that took place “in a short span of time”.

Apart from Ong, the four other accomplices involved in the attack are Mohammad Amin bin Aman, 47; Juhari Ab Karim, 34; Nur Atika Fauziana Sherhan, 20; and Nur Muhammad Irwan Mohd Ngat, 29.

While Atika, Juhari and Irwan have been sentenced, Lim, Ong and Amin have yet to be dealt with by the courts.