Toa Payoh ritual murders

Born on 6 January 1942, Adrian Lim (traditional Chinese: 林寶龍; simplified Chinese: 林宝龙; pinyin: Lín Bǎolóng; Jyutping: lam4 bou2 lung4) was the eldest son of a low-income family.[11] Described at the trial by his sister as a hot-tempered boy,[12] he dropped out of Anglo-Chinese School.[5] He worked in a variety of jobs, including as an informant for the Internal Security Department.

In 1962, he joined the cable radio company Rediffusion Singapore where he worked for 14 years.[5] For three years, he installed and serviced Rediffusion sets as an electrician before being promoted to bill collector.[11] In April 1967, Lim married his childhood sweetheart with whom he had two children. He converted to Catholicism for his marriage.[13] Lim and his family lived in rented rooms until his 1970 purchase of a three-room flat—a seventh floor unit (unit number 467F) of Block 12, Toa Payoh.

Lim started part-time practice as a spirit medium in 1973. Lim usually preyed on vulnerable girls and women, often much younger than him, from abusive or impoverished backgrounds, and with troubled lives. He rented a room where he attended to the women—most of whom were bargirls, dance hostesses, and prostitutes—introduced to him by his landlord.[14] Lim's customers also included superstitious men and elderly females, whom he cheated only of cash.[15]

Lim had learned the trade from a bomoh called "Uncle Willie" and prayed to gods of various religions despite his Catholic baptism. The Hindu goddess Kali and "Phragann",[fn 1] which Lim described as a Siamese sex god,[16] were among the spiritual entities he called on in his rituals.[17] Lim deceived his clients with several confidence tricks; his most effective gimmick, known as the "needles and egg" trick, duped many to believe that he had supernatural abilities. After blackening needles with soot from a burning candle, Lim carefully inserted them into a raw egg and sealed the hole with powder. In his rituals, he passed the egg several times over his client while chanting and asked her to crack open the egg. Unaware that the egg had been tampered with, the client would be convinced by the sight of the black needles that evil spirits were harassing her.[18]

Claiming he had supernatural powers to solve their problems through rituals, he used the pretext of a massage to sexually assault his female clients. He would have the woman strip together with him, and would knead her body — including her genitals — with Phragann's idol, and proceed to rape her.[19] Lim's treatments also included an electro-shock therapy based on that used on mental patients. After placing his client's feet in a tub of water and attaching wires to her temples, Lim passed electricity through her.[20] The shocks, he assured her, would cure headaches and drive away evil spirits.[21]

Lim used his fake powers to threaten and intimidate his female partners. He also used various types of abuse, such as isolation from family members and threats, to control the women, break them, and keep them trapped. The women tended to be much younger than Lim, came from abusive childhoods, and had little education. Lim was extremely physically violent towards his partners; he would slam their heads against the wall, kick them and pull their hair. He also tortured them by electrocuting them.[22] Lim would also get money from them, including when he was living with Tan and Hoe. He pressured 18-year-old Malaysian student Christina Chong into becoming a prostitute and took about $120,000 from her over two years, from 1979 to 1981.[23]

Born in 1953 or 1954, Catherine Tan Mui Choo (traditional Chinese: 陳梅珠; simplified Chinese: 陈梅珠; pinyin: Chén Méizhū; Jyutping: can4 mui4 zyu1) was the eldest of four children. She was neglected by her parents who focused their attention on her brothers[5] and sent her away at 13 years old to a vocational centre.[24]

At 17 years old, Tan lost her grandmother, the only family member whom she was close to and was devoted to. Estranged from family, and young with little education and skills, the teenager started working at a bar to earn a living. At 20 years old, she was referred by a coworker to Lim for help with depression and other ailments.[25] Tan started visiting him regularly.[26]

In 1975, Lim, then 33 years old, insisted that the 21-year-old moved into his flat, where he was then living with his then-wife and two children. Lim lied to his wife that he was not having an affair with Tan, swearing an oath of denial before a picture of Jesus Christ. However, the wife discovered the truth and moved out with their children a few days later, divorcing Lim in 1976.[27]

Lim quit his Rediffusion job and became a full-time medium. He enjoyed brisk business,[28] at one point receiving S$6,000–7,000 (US$2,838–3,311)[fn 2] a month from a single client.[30] In June 1977, Lim and Tan registered their marriage.[31]

Lim was extremely abusive towards Tan, regularly torturing her with electric shocks,[23] beatings, threats, and lies.[32] Lim sexually exploited and financially abused Tan: he forced her into becoming a prostitute and a stripper, and took her earnings.[33] She went into further depression, experiencing suicidal thoughts and a sense of worthlessness. Lim made Tan convince young female clients to sleep with him.[34]

Lim's horrific abuse extended to Tan's younger siblings. Lim forced Tan's younger sister into having sex with him and Tan, and forced the girl into prostitution too.[35] Demanding Tan to have sex with younger males to preserve her youth, Lim pressured her into having sex with her 16-year-old brother regularly for over one year. He also forced her into having sex with another teenager.

Born on 10 September 1955, Hoe Kah Hong (traditional Chinese: 何家鳳; simplified Chinese: 何家凤; pinyin: Hé Jiāfèng; Jyutping: ho4 gaa1 fung6) was the third of six children.[36] At eight years old, when her father died, she was sent away from family to Penang, Malaysia, to live with her aunt.[36] She returned to the family at 15 years old, and worked as a seamstress, factory-hand and a production operator for Hewlett Packard.[36]

In 1978, Hoe married Benson Loh Ngak Hua.

In 1979, her mother brought 24-year-old Hoe and her sisters to get treatment from Lim.[5] Lim used his usual tricks to convince them that he had supernatural powers.

Lim desired to make Hoe one of his "holy wives". To isolate Hoe from her family, Lim started a campaign of lies, intimidation and emotional abuse. He claimed to her that: she was an illegitimate child; her family were immoral people who practised infidelity; her husband would force her into prostitution.[5] Hoe eventually underwent a mock wedding with Lim who declared her as his "holy wife".[5] Three months after first meeting Lim, Hoe moved in with him and Tan.[37]

Loh sought out his wife at Lim's flat. He stayed to observe her treatment and was persuaded to participate in the electro-shock "therapies". In the early hours of 7 January 1980, Loh sat with Hoe, their arms locked together and their feet in separate tubs of water. Lim applied a large voltage to Loh, electrocuting him to death, while Hoe was stunned into unconsciousness. Loh was 25 years old.

Lim made Hoe lie to the police that Loh was electrocuted when switching on a faulty electric fan.[38] The coroner recorded an open verdict, indicating the circumstances of his death were unclear.[39] The police made no further investigations.[40] Lim later said he killed Loh so he could retain Hoe.[5] He also blamed Hoe for the death, claiming an evil spirit in her had jumped out and killed Loh.[23]

Hoe was deeply affected by Loh's death. She fell into depression; she started hearing voices and having hallucinations of Loh. At the end of May she was admitted to the Woodbridge Hospital for psychiatric treatment. Psychologists diagnosed her condition as schizophrenia and started appropriate treatments. By the first week of July, Hoe was discharged. Hoe moved back in with Lim,[41] who would torture her with electric shocks.

She continued having follow-up checks at Woodbridge Hospital. Because she did not complain and did not show symptoms at the sessions, she was assessed as being in remission at the time of the killings.[42]

The murder case was heard in Courtroom No. 4 of the old Supreme Court Building.

The High Court was convened in the Supreme Court Building on 25 March 1983.[52] Presiding over the case were two judges: Justice Thirugnana Sampanthar Sinnathuray, who would deliver judgment on serial murderer John Martin Scripps 13 years later,[53] and Justice Frederick Arthur Chua, who was at the time the longest serving judge in Singapore.[54] Knight continued to build his case on the evidence gathered by detective work. Photographs of the crime scenes, together with witness testimonies, would help the court to visualise the events that led to the crimes. Other evidence — the blood samples, religious objects, drugs, and the notes with Ng and Ghazali's names — conclusively proved the defendants' involvement. Knight had no eyewitnesses to the murders; his evidence was circumstantial, but he told the court in his opening statement, "What matters is that [the accused] did intentionally suffocate and drown these two innocent children, causing their deaths in circumstances which amount to murder. And this we will prove beyond all reasonable doubt."[55]

Tan, with Lim's and the police's permission, used $10,000 of the $159,340[56] (US$4,730 of US$75,370) seized from the trio's flat to engage J. B. Jeyaretnam for her defence.[57][58] Hoe had to accept the court's offer of counsel, receiving Nathan Isaac as her defender. Since his arrest, Lim had refused legal representation. He defended himself at the Subordinate Court hearings,[59] but could not continue to do so when the case was moved to the High Court; Singapore law requires that for capital crimes the accused must be defended by a legal professional. Thus Howard Cashin was appointed as Lim's lawyer,[60] although his job was complicated by his client's refusal to cooperate.[61] The three lawyers decided not to dispute that their clients had killed the children. Acting on a defence of diminished responsibility, they attempted to show that their clients were not sound of mind and could not be held responsible for the killings.[62] Had this defence been successful, all three defendants would have escaped the death penalty but be sentenced to either life imprisonment, or up to 10 years in jail for a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (or manslaughter) instead of murder.[63]

After Knight had presented the prosecution evidence the court heard testimonies on the personalities and character flaws of the accused, from their relatives and acquaintances. Details of their lives were revealed by one of Lim's "holy wives". Private medical practitioners Dr. Yeo Peng Ngee and Dr. Ang Yiau Hua admitted that they were Lim's sources for drugs, and had provided the trio sleeping pills and sedatives without question on each consultation.[64][fn 3] The police and forensics teams gave their accounts of their investigations; Inspector Suppiah, the investigating officer-in-charge, read out the statements the defendants had made during their remand. In these statements Lim stated that he had killed for revenge, and that he had sodomised Ng. The accused had also confirmed in their statements that each was an active participant in the murders.[67] There were many contradictions among these statements and the confessions made in court by the accused, but Judge Sinnathuray declared that despite the conflicting evidence, "the essential facts of this case are not in dispute".[68] Lim's involvement in the crimes was further evidenced by Fung Joon Yong, a witness who vouched that just after midnight on 7 February 1981, at the ground floor of Block 12, he saw Lim and a woman walk past him carrying a dark-skinned boy.[5][69]

On 13 April, Lim took the stand. He maintained that he was the sole perpetrator of the crimes.[70] He denied that he raped Lucy Lau or Ng, claiming that he made the earlier statements only to satisfy his interrogators.[71][72] Lim was selective in answering the questions the court threw at him; he verbosely answered those that agreed with his stance, and refused to comment on the others.[70] When challenged on the veracity of his latest confession, he claimed that he was bound by religious and moral duty to tell the truth.[73] Knight, however, countered that Lim was inherently a dishonest man who had no respect for oaths. Lim had lied to his wife, his clients, the police, and psychiatrists. Knight claimed Lim's stance in court was an open admission that he willingly lied in his earlier statements.[74] Tan and Hoe were more cooperative, answering the questions posed by the court. They denied Lim's story, and vouched for the veracity of the statements they had given to the police.[75] They told how they had lived in constant fear and awe of Lim; believing he had supernatural powers, they followed his every order and had no free will of their own.[76] Under Knight's questioning, however, Tan admitted that Lim had been defrauding his customers, and that she had knowingly helped him to do so.[77] Knight then got Hoe to agree that she was conscious of her actions at the time of the murders.[78]

Of the fact that Lim, Tan, and Hoe had killed the children there was no doubt. Their defence was based on convincing the judges that medically, the accused were not in total control of themselves during the crimes. The bulk of the trial was therefore a battle between expert witnesses called by both sides.

Dr Wong Yip Chong, a senior psychiatrist in private practice, believed that Lim was mentally ill at the time of the crimes. Claiming to be "judging by the big picture, and not fussing over contradictions",[79] he said that Lim's voracious sexual appetite and deluded belief in Kali were characteristics of a mild manic depression. The doctor also proclaimed that only an unsound mind would dump the bodies close to his home when his plan was to distract the police.[80] Countering this, the prosecution's expert witness, Dr Chee Kuan Tsee, a psychiatrist at Woodbridge Hospital,[81] said that Lim was "purposeful in his pursuits, patient in his planning and persuasive in his performance for personal power and pleasure".[82] In Dr Chee's opinion, Lim had indulged in sex because through his role as a medium he obtained a supply of women who were willing to go to bed with him. Furthermore, his belief in Kali was religious in nature, not delusional. Lim's use of religion for personal benefit indicated full self-control. Lastly, Lim had consulted doctors and freely taken sedatives to alleviate his insomnia, a condition which, according to Dr Chee, sufferers from manic depression fail to recognise.[83]

Dr R. Nagulendran, a consultant psychiatrist, testified that Tan was mentally impaired by reactive psychotic depression. Her depression, which started before meeting Lim, worsened with the extensive abuse she suffered over the years. The use of drugs also caused her to hallucinate and be susceptible to Lim's lies.[82] On the other hand, Dr Chee felt that Tan was happy with her life with Lim: later during cross-examination by J.B. Jeyaretnam, he admitted disregarding how Tan was physically abused by her husband,[23] but insisted that Tan was mentally sound during the killings.[84]

Both Dr Nagulendran and Dr Chee agreed that Hoe suffered from schizophrenia long before she met Lim, and that her stay in Woodbridge Hospital had helped her recovery. Dr Nagulendran noted that Hoe appeared cheerful after her arrest. He also said that Hoe was frightened and sad to see the children electrocuted, which triggered memories of what she went through. Dr Nagulendran's diagnosis was that Hoe was mentally ill at the time of the killings. On the other hand, since the Woodbridge doctors thought she appeared well during her follow-up checks (16 July 1980 – 31 January 1981), Dr Chee evaluated she was well at the time of the killings.[85][86] Were Hoe as severely impaired by her condition as Dr Nagulendran described, she would have been unable to work. But she had a job.[85] Dr Chee also believed that a mentally ill person is more likely to resist being controlled than a healthy person can, and did not think that Hoe was controlled by Lim.[23]

Cashin declared that Lim was a normal man until his initiation into the occult, and that he was clearly divorced from reality when he entered the "unreasonable world of atrociousness", acting on his delusions to kill children in Kali's name.[87]

Jeyaretnam pointed out that Tan had depression for a long time. On top of that, she was living in fear of Lim who had abused not just her but her family members too. These made it hard for her to feel able to say no to Lim.

Isaac concluded, "[Hoe's] schizophrenic mind accepted that if the children were killed, they would go to heaven and not grow up evil like her mother and others."[88] Isaac criticised Dr Chee for failing to accept Hoe's symptoms as schizophrenia.[82][88]

The prosecution started its closing speech by drawing attention to the "cool and calculating" manner in which the children were killed.[89] Knight also argued that the accused could not have shared the same delusion, and only brought it up during the trial.[88] The "cunning and deliberation" displayed in the acts could not have been done by a deluded person.[89] Urging the judges to consider the ramifications of their verdict, Knight said: "My Lords, to say that Lim was less than a coward who preyed on little children because they could not fight back; killed them in the hope that he would gain power or wealth and therefore did not commit murder, is to make no sense of the law of murder. It would lend credence to the shroud of mystery and magic he has conjured up his practices and by which he managed to frighten, intimidate and persuade the superstitious, the weak and the gullible into participating in the most lewd and obscene acts."[90]

Knight described that Tan helped with the killings because "she loved [Lim]", and that Hoe was misled and did not have a mental illness.[90]

On 25 May 1983, crowds massed outside the building, waiting for the outcome of the trial. Due to limited seating, only a few were allowed inside to hear Justice Sinnathuray's delivery of the verdict, which took 15 minutes. The two judges were not convinced that the three defendants were mentally volatile during the crimes.

They found Lim to be "abominable and depraved" in carrying out his schemes.[91] Viewing her interviews with the expert witnesses as admissions of guilt,[92] Sinnathuray and Chua decided that Tan was an "artful and wicked person", and a "willing [party] to [Lim's] loathsome and nefarious acts".[93] The judges found Hoe to be "simple" and "easily influenced".[93] Although she suffered from schizophrenia, they opined that she was in a state of remission during the murders, hence she should bear full responsibility for her actions.[94]

All three defendants were found guilty of murder and received mandatory death sentences,[95] which was the only available punishment allowed for murder under Singapore law at that time. The two women did not react to their sentences. Lim beamed and cried, "Thank you, my Lords!" as he was led out.[96]

Lim accepted his punishment and gave up his right to appeal, but the women appealed against their sentences. Tan hired Francis Seow to appeal for her, and the court again assigned Isaac to Hoe.[97] The lawyers asked the appeal court to reconsider the mental states of their clients during the murders, charging that the trial judges in their deliberations had failed to consider this point.[84] The Court of Criminal Appeal reached their decision in August 1986.[98] The appeal judges which consist of Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin, Justice Lai Kew Chai and Justice L P Thean reaffirmed the decision of their trial counterparts, noting that as finders of facts, judges have the right to discount medical evidence in the light of evidence from other sources.[99][fn 4] Tan and Hoe's further appeals to London's Privy Council and Singapore President Wee Kim Wee met with similar failures.[98]

While on death row at Changi Prison, the trio were counselled by Catholic priests and nuns.

Lim refused to see a counsellor for most of his time on death row.

Tan and Hoe had Sister Gerard Fernandez as their spiritual counsellor. Tan was already known to Sister Gerard who operated the vocational centre that Tan attended as a youth. In 1983, Sister Gerard reached out to Tan who wrote, "Sister, how could you love me after what I have done?", signing off as a "black sheep".[101] The nun converted both women to Catholicism. Tan began to spend hours in prayer, while Hoe was baptized.

The week before the execution date, Lim joined in, asking for repentance. He asked Australian priest Father Brian Doro for absolution. In their final days, all three of them received a Holy Communion.[102][103] On 25 November 1988, the trio were given their last meal and led to the hangman's noose. Lim smiled throughout his last walk to the gallows. At 6 am in that same morning, the trio were executed by long drop hanging and later pronounced dead.[104] After the sentences were carried out, the three murderers were given a short Catholic funeral mass by Father Doro,[105] and cremated on the same day.[106]

In 2021, Justice Choo Han Teck, who was Cashin's associate during the case, said that in the 1980s, "People on the Government side (the Woodbridge) saw it as an almost defensive mechanism to disagree everything with the private psychiatrists".[107] He also pointed out that it was difficult to even find private psychiatrists to testify in court; Wong Yip Chong was the only one to do so and Dr Nagulendran came along later.

Even in the short period of time interacting with Lim for the trial, Choo, Cashin and Wong found Lim volatile and difficult.