Blood Lust by Alex Josey Read Free Book Online Page B

represented Richard
James, Stephen Francis and Konesekaram Nagalingam. Mr G. Gopalan appeared for
Peter Lim Swee Guan, and Mr Leo Fernando defended Alex Yau Hean Thye. Mr John
Tan appeared for Stephen Lee Hock Khoon. Singapore’s leading criminal lawyer,
Mr David Marshall (who became Singapore’s Ambassador to France when he retired
from the Bar in 1978), held a watching brief for ‘certain prosecution
witnesses’. They were never named. Mr T.W. Ong held a watching brief for Air
Vietnam, and Mr S.K. Lee watched the interests of Mr Ngo’s family. Mr P.
Suppiah held a watching brief for Augustine Ang, the State’s chief prosecution
witness.
    Mr Rajendran made his opening address on 4
May 1972. As the Solicitor-General, Mr A.W. Ghows, was to point out at the
trial more than a year later, the purpose of a preliminary inquiry is purely to
ensure that no one was made to stand trial unless a prima facie case is made
out against him. “All that the Court below has to do is to record enough evidence
to commit the nine accused to trial,” Mr Ghows had declared.
    Mr Rajendran told how the Chou brothers,
Andrew, aged 31, and David, aged 34, out for revenge, plotted the killing of
two or three businessmen. The brothers had asked two friends to round up a few
boys to do the job for which they were prepared to pay $20,000. He said the job
had to be clean and quiet and ropes were to be used to strangle the men
quietly. They were to knock them off at the Chou brothers’ home and take them
elsewhere for burial. David Chou, a divorcee with two young daughters, was a
university graduate and sales manager at a commercial firm. Andrew was an air
traffic supervisor with Air Vietnam. Andrew was involved with three syndicates
in smuggling gold. “In October last year,” said the Senior State Counsel, “a
sum of US$235,000 which had arrived on an Air Vietnam flight as payment to the
three syndicates for gold, was missing. Andrew was pressured to find it. Andrew
suspected that it had been stolen by certain members of the airport staff.
After a few days of investigation, most of the money was recovered from Chua
Nguan Key, a traffic hand.”
    As a result of this episode, relationships
between the syndicates and Andrew were strained. The three syndicates were: Ngo
Cheng Poh of Kee Guan Import-Export Co., in Pekin Street; Chee Pui Cheng,
proprietor of Eastern Watch Co., and Lee Bor, proprietor of Lee Tong Heng
Import-Export. Mr Rajendran said that Chee Pui Cheng did not trust Andrew
anymore. He ceased exporting gold through him. Lee Bor sent only one more
consignment through Andrew. This made Andrew angry. His income from gold
trafficking was considerably reduced. It was then that Andrew planned Ngo’s
murder and plotted to rob him of gold worth half a million dollars. Mr Rajendran
said that after about two months of planning and the recruiting of seven
people, the two brothers murdered Ngo (55 years old) and two of his employees,
Leong Chin Woo (51 years old) and Ang Boon Chai (57 years old). The murder took
place at Chou’s home at 19, Chepstow Close in Serangoon Garden Estate at
midnight, on 29 December 1971.
    According to plan, the $500,000 worth of
gold bars which Ngo brought to Chou’s house that night for him to export out of
Singapore were delivered to Catherine Tay. She had arranged for Tan Kay Hwa to
buy the gold bars.
    Also charged with murder were Peter Lim Swee
Guan (24 years old), a despatch clerk, Stephen Francis (20 years old), Alex Yau
Hean Thye (19 years old), Richard James (18 years old), Konesekaram Nagalingam
(18 years old) and two 16-year-olds—Ringo Lee Chiew Chwee and Stephen Lee Hock
Khoon. All nine were accused jointly of being members of an unlawful assembly,
one or more members of which murdered Ngo, Leong and Ang.
    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