The five-judge Court of Appeal upheld the death sentence that was given to Teo Ghim Heng, 46, earlier today for the murder of his pregnant wife and their 4-year-old daughter in 2017.
They had dismissed his appeal that argued that he was suffering from a mental illness which diminishes his responsibility for his acts.
Teo argued that he should be convicted of culpable homicide instead, and that the two homicide-related provisions were unconstitutional because it allowed the prosecution to choose sentences.
In her delivery of the court’s decision, Justice Judith Prakash said that the lower court was right to find that Teo was not suffering from a major depressive disorder.
What happened?
Teo Ghim Heng, 46-years-old, had strangled his 39-year-old wife Choong Pei Shan, who was 6 months pregnant; along with his 4-year-old daughter, Zi Ning, in their home at Woodlands on 20 January 2017.
He spent a week with their dead bodies in the home before burning them.
Teo and Choong got married in 2009 and he was a successful property agent, but his income dipped in 2015 because of a market downturn and in late 2016, he picked up another job as a sales coordinator at a company that does renovations.
However, Teo had a gambling habit and the family’s expenses still remained unchanged.
He was riddled with a debt of about $120,000 by the end of 2016 and put his flat up for sale, and the couple had an argument on 18 January 2017 about their finances.
Teo then brought up Choong’s extra-marital affair in 2014 during the argument.
On 29 January 2017, Teo chose not to send his daughter, Zi Ning, to school because her school fees were overdue, and Choong then scolded him for being “useless”.
Teo then used a bath towel to strangle his wife before using his hands to make sure that she was dead, he then moved on to his daughter and strangled her to death as well.