Mother and boyfriend burnt corpse of 4-year-old girl who was starved, abused and fatally punched

Warning: This article contains details of child abuse that readers may find upsetting.

SINGAPORE: For more than a year, Megan Khung suffered cruel abuse at the hands of her mother and her mother's boyfriend, including starvation, beatings and being forced to sleep outside.

The four-year-old girl died after her mother's boyfriend punched her in the stomach on Feb 21, 2020. Despite knowing she was in pain, the couple did not call for help and instead took drugs at home.

Hoping to escape detection after Megan died, they burnt the girl's scarred and emaciated body to ashes in a purpose-built barrel. Her remains were never recovered.

Megan's mother, 29-year-old Foo Li Ping, and her then-boyfriend, 38-year-old Wong Shi Xiang, were convicted in the High Court on Friday (Feb 28).

Wong pleaded guilty to four charges of culpable homicide, impeding investigations by disposing of a corpse, drug trafficking and drug consumption. Another 11 charges, mostly drug-related, were taken into consideration.

The prosecution is seeking 28 to 30 years' jail and 15 to 17 strokes of the cane for Wong, while his defence lawyer Vinit Chhabra is asking for 20 to 22 years' jail and 11 strokes of the cane.

"Where senseless violence is inflicted on a young child by her caretaker, a clear signal – showing that this is regarded with deep abhorrence and will not be tolerated – must be set," said Deputy Public Prosecutor Marcus Foo.

The mother pleaded guilty to three charges of allowing the death of a child, child abuse and impeding investigations by disposing of a corpse. Another charge of child abuse was taken into consideration.

The prosecution is seeking 15 to 20 years' jail for Foo, while defence lawyers Cory Wong and Josephus Tan of Invictus Law are asking for not more than 11 years.

"Some people, I think clearly, they are not fit to be mothers. The person in the dock right now is one such person," said Mr Wong about his client, adding that she was pleading guilty to "give accountability" to Megan.

Wong and Foo, who were originally accused of murder, will return to court for sentencing on Apr 3.

A third person, the couple's friend Nouvelle Chua Ruoshi, 35, is accused of disposing of Megan's body together with them. Her case is pending before the courts.

Megan's death was discovered after her biological father Khung Wei Nan, better known online as Simonboy, made a police report in July 2020 saying he was concerned for her safety.

PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE

Wong, who was a freelance car mechanic, and Foo, who was then unemployed, started their relationship in November 2018. They rented an apartment together in Suites@Guillemard while Megan stayed with Foo's mother.

Megan slept over at the condominium on some weekends. Between late February and early March 2019, Wong and Foo caned her when she wet the bed and sofa.

Preschool staff noticed bruises on Megan's body. They told Wong and Foo to stop the physical punishment and that they would be referred to the authorities if this continued.

However, when Megan started living with Wong and Foo in September 2019, Foo withdrew her from the preschool where she had been enrolled since 2017.

The couple's physical abuse escalated. Wong caned Megan at least once a week and also slapped, pushed and punched her. Foo was aware of this and also caned Megan on some occasions.

In early 2020, Wong injured Megan's jaw when he hit her. Instead of taking her to the doctor, Foo searched online for how to fix dislocated jaws and told Wong, who tried to push Megan's jaw back in place.

Wong and Foo further engaged in acts of emotional abuse, which they or Chua filmed. Members of the public were warned about the disturbing nature of the videos before they were shown in court.

One video filmed by Chua on Nov 9, 2019, showed Foo forcing Megan to wear a soiled diaper over her head and face and scolding her as the girl continually sobbed.

In late 2019, when Megan used Foo's make-up without permission, Wong punished her by drawing red marks all over her face, then humiliated her by parading her outside the condominium.

The video showed the child crying as Wong told her to "say hello" to passing vehicles and people. Chua filmed the incident to remind Megan of her punishment if she misbehaved in the future.

From January 2020, Wong and Foo deprived Megan of food so she would not relieve herself around the house. They also did not allow her to wear clothes as she would peel her scabs from being caned, staining her clothes with blood.

A nearly six-minute video filmed by Chua on Feb 3, 2020, showed Megan – naked with shorn hair and bloody scabs all over her body – sobbing while continually asking her mother if she could wear a shirt. Foo repeatedly replied "huh".

In another video that Foo filmed on Feb 4, 2020, Megan pleaded for food while her mother ate cup noodles. When Foo refused and told Megan she was finishing the noodles, the girl's cries grew more distressed.

In the video, Foo also accused Megan in Mandarin of "bullying" her and putting on a fake front by crying, called the girl "irritating", and used an expletive against the four-year-old.

Around the start of 2020, Wong and Foo made Megan sleep in a planter box measuring 3m by 1m that was located outside the master bedroom, so that she would not dirty the apartment.

Megan was not given pillows or blankets and was made to sleep in the box, which faced the afternoon sun, regardless of weather conditions.

On one occasion, she suffered heatstroke and was seen jerking while lying on the ground. Wong placed ice on her to cool her down but did not send her to the doctor.

MEGAN'S DEATH AND ATTEMPTS TO REVIVE HER

Megan was not given anything to eat for the entire day on Feb 21, 2020.

Sometime after 9pm that night, Wong brought Megan into the apartment as he had bought dinner. With Foo present, he started disciplining the girl in their bedroom.

Wong warned Megan not to relieve herself in the house if he let her sleep inside. But he grew angry because he felt that she was not looking at him when he spoke to her.

Wong punched Megan in the stomach, causing her back to hit the wall with a loud thud. Megan appeared unusually weak after this, and Foo told Wong that the girl looked like she "cannot make it".

After midnight, Chua arrived at the flat and Wong told her he had hit Megan very badly. Chua saw Megan lying on her side on the bedroom floor. The girl was holding her stomach and said she was in pain.

However, when Chua told Wong and Foo about this, they dismissed it and claimed that Megan was just trying to get attention. Chua ignored the girl, and the trio took drugs together in the living room.

Several hours later, Chua noticed that Megan was still in the same position and told Wong and Foo. When Foo checked, she saw clear vomit with "black contents" beside Megan.

They attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation by pressing on Megan's chest and blowing air into her mouth, including through a 30cm tube, but she did not respond.

Chua and Wong left in turns to find a defibrillator. Wong found one but did not bring it back to the apartment, out of fear that removing it would trigger alarms and lead the authorities to Megan.

Around this time, Foo realised her daughter had died and sent a message to the trio's WhatsApp group saying: "Megan is gone."

Out of desperation, Wong improvised a resuscitation device with two wires taped to two metal chopsticks. He inserted the chopsticks into a three-pin power source and placed the two wires on Megan's chest, but she did not wake up.

Wong also told Foo and Chua to smoke drugs and blow the smoke through a tube into Megan's mouth, but she remained unresponsive.

According to a forensic pathologist, the possible cause of death was blood infection from inflammation, caused by ruptures or lacerations of Megan's internal organs.

COVER-UP AND DISPOSAL OF MEGAN'S BODY

Wong, Foo and Chua left the apartment on Feb 23, 2020 and stayed in hotels and service apartments until June 2020.

Megan's body remained in the apartment. Wong returned on a few occasions and took steps to prevent her body from being discovered.

He wrapped her body in a blanket and layers of cling wrap and brown tape, then placed it in a plastic storage box. He and Foo later wrapped this box with more cling wrap and sealed it with cement.

Wong also kept the air-conditioning on to slow decomposition, and boiled vinegar to mask any foul smells.

Wong and Foo planned to dispose of Megan's body so that the police would not discover her death, and Chua was aware of these discussions.

Wong suggested using a "smokeless burn barrel", which has a blower attached to it that would feed oxygen to the fire and intensify it, and Foo researched how to go about this.

The couple experimented with different barrel designs using empty drink cans and a leaf blower that Wong bought, to test if the contents of the barrel would be fully incinerated.

After deciding on this plan, Wong asked a signboard manufacturer to build a container that he claimed was for burning incense. He shared a design he had come up with so that the plastic storage box would fit in the container.

Wong tested the barrel in Foo's presence, and also asked for modifications like more openings.

On May 8, 2020, Wong, Foo and Chua collected the metal barrel and some charcoal from the signboard manufacturer, then retrieved Megan's body from the apartment.

Wong, who was in a separate car from Foo and Chua, drove with the box containing Megan's body to his godfather's workshop in Paya Ubi Industrial Park.

He arrived at about 6.10am, set up the metal barrel and leaf blower, and started the incineration. Foo and Chua arrived later, and they also burned incense paper in the barrel for several hours.

Chua left the workshop at about 10.40am, while Wong and Foo stayed on as the incineration continued. After the fire stopped, Wong swept the ashes into a trash bag that he placed in his car.

He drove to East Coast Park by himself and scattered Megan's ashes into the sea, then returned to the workshop to clean up the site with Foo.

About a week later, Wong and Chua accompanied the signboard manufacturer to Tampines Link to dispose of the metal barrel, which Wong had asked him to do.

The police traced Wong, Foo and Chua after the report by Megan's father, and brought them in for interviews on Jul 23, 2020. They were arrested the next day.