The New Paper, Singapore, 17 January 1997
Nice guy ... then monster
By Khor Su Min
THE photograph was given to us by the girl with these words: "I don't want it back."
Miss Ng Siow Chin, a 19-year-old student, wants to block out the memories of the last 10 months.
Memories which go back to her first meeting with "this nice guy" in a pub, the good times they had ... and finally the dreadful night of Nov 27 last year when he stabbed her four times.
On that night, Vincent Tan appeared suddenly in her Bukit Panjang flat.
She said: "We all stood up in surprise. Then my father asked him to come to the sitting room and talk it out."
JAILED: Vincent Tan was sentenced to two-and-a-half years jail and six strokes of the cane.
The maximum penalty for voluntarily causing grievous hurt is life imprisonment, or a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine or caning.
The penalty for entering a house without permission, with the intention of hurting someone, is up to seven years' jail and a fine.
"I turned my back, then I heard my parents and brother shouting, asking me to run." It was too late.
Tan, 32 and unemployed, stabbed her -- twice in the abdomen, and once each on the upper left arm and left loin.
Recalled Miss Ng: "I saw my mum, dad, and brother trying to pull him away from me...I just lay on the floor."
An ambulance took Miss Ng to National University Hospital.
As she lay on the operating table, soon after his attack, he called up her best friend.
Said Miss Ng: "He asked her if I was dead. And should he send any flowers?"
But Tan was so different when she first met him in a Bukit Timah pub early last year.
"He was soft-spoken and polite and he didn't talk very much."
He left roses at her front door. Miss Ng asked her friend to check Tan out. Her friend gave the go-ahead.
Tan and Miss Ng started going out, meeting once or twice a week for meals at a food court or hawker centre. Once a month they would watch a movie.
Two or three times a week, he would visit her at home. When she did her homework, he would watch TV or just do nothing.
Miss Ng began to get irritated.
"I couldn't study with him staring at my face doing nothing."
She wanted to end the relationship. That's when he began to turn into a monster.
He used foul language. He stubbed her tongue with cigarettes. He even threatened to kill her if she broke off with him.
Miss Ng finally snapped the 10-month-old relationship in October last year.
Her nightmare continued. Tan began to sleep in her flat's corridor.
"I felt scared, I didn't dare step out of the house. My brother and sister had to buy lunch for me," she said.
The fear persists, although Tan was jailed for two-and-a-half years yesterday.
She said: "I am afraid he will come back for me."
HOW HE WAS CAUGHT
TAN was caught when he turned up at the National University Hospital on Nov 28, the same night he stabbed Ms Ng.
Ms Tan's aunt saw him in the lift and yelled for the police.
Tan has previous convictions for theft and molest, and has been in drug rehabilitation centres before.
The Straits Times, Singapore, 30 January 1997
Chinese national confined, robbed lounge hostess
A CHINESE national who confined, robbed and stripped a karaoke lounge hostess with two others was sentenced to a total of 8½ years' jail and 22 strokes of the cane yesterday. Yu Daichao, 20, who pleaded guilty, was given six years and 12 strokes for robbing the woman of $1,322 worth of property with two accomplices at Guillemard Hotel in Geylang on Dec 27. During the robbery, the 26-year-old victim, also a Chinese national, was punched. She also alleged that she was raped during the confinement.
Yu was given 30 months and six strokes for restraining and molesting the victim, two months and four strokes for overstaying since April last year, and four months for wrongful confinement.
District Judge Syed Alwee Alsree ordered the first two sentences to run consecutively. The other two are concurrent.
The case against one of the accomplices, a 26-year-old Chinese national, is pending. He was also charged with two counts of raping the woman yesterday. The third man is still at large.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Janet Wang said the three men invited the woman and another hostess for supper on Dec 27 after meeting them at their workplace.
At a food centre, the 26-year-old accomplice went to Guillemard Hotel to book a room.
When they got to the hotel at about 3 am, the accomplice grabbed her and stuffed a sock into her mouth. When the other woman tried to help, the third man pulled her away and threatened to kill her.
Yu and his accomplice then tied the victim with masking tape and also taped her mouth. They then carried her into the bathroom and robbed her.
The third man cut her blouse and brassiere with a knife, then passed the knife to the other two, who cut her skirt and panties.
He forced her to reveal the personal identification number of an ATM card, but when she told them that it was a souvenir, they punched and kicked her.
He also forced her to call her family in China to deliver 300,000 yuan (S$51,800) to a certain hotel in Fuqing, Fujian. Her sister reported the matter to the authorities there.
The victim escaped at about 8 am on Dec 29, when Yu and the accomplice fell asleep while guarding her.
DPP Wang said she got hold of a shirt to cover herself. She contacted a Singaporean, who then took her to Geylang West Neighbourhood Police Post to make a report.
In mitigation, Yu, who was shivering in the dock, said he came to Singapore to look for work. He said he went along with the third man, who suggested that he join him in committing the crimes as he could not repay the loan he had taken from him.
He said the other two had planned the offences.
