wHEN THE DEVIL APPEARS IN COURT - PART 2

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WHEN THE DEVIL APPEARS IN COURT – PART 2

THE BATTLE OF THE PSYCHIATRISTS
Last week we looked at a case involving withcraft and sorcery in the English Court of Appeal in London. We closed our article with the facts of the infamous Singapore case of Adrian Lim and his two female accomplices, Miss X and Miss Y.
Adrian, his wife, Miss X and his mistress Miss Y, were charged, tried and convicted by the High Court of Singapore for the murders of two children, a Chinese girl, Agnes Ng who was eight years old and a Malay boy, Ghazali Marzuki, who was 11 years old.

DEFENCE OF DIMINSHED REPSPONSIBILTY

Throughout their trial which lasted 41 days none of the accused disputed the overwhelming evidence led by the prosecution which proved that the killings took place at their hands. However, Miss X and Miss Y claimed that they were entitled to the verdict of culpable homicide not amounting to murder because Miss X and Miss Y were suffering from abnormalities of their minds that impaired their mental responsibilities for their acts. This is known as the plea of diminished responsibility and if established by the defence, would reduce the offence of murder for which the sentence is death to imprisonment for life or up to ten years,

THE FACTS OF THE CASE
On 11 June 1977 Adrian Lim married Miss X. With her active assistance Adrian practised as a medium in the course of which he sold charmed perfumes, amulets, dispensed demadon (Roche 30) capsules or applied electric shocks on their victims purportedly to drive away the devil from the victims. Adrian managed to deceive Miss X into accepting the ruse that because of his alleged heart ailment he needed to be rejuvenated by having sex with girls below his age. Several girls fell prey to their evil devices as a result of which Adrian indulged himself sexually and both of them gained financially.
One of the victims was Miss Y who also sought treatment. He feigned a trance and claimed that the spirits wanted Miss Y to be his ‘holy’ wife. Miss Y was already married to Loh Ngak Hua. To get him out of the way, Adrian managed to win the confidence of Loh Ngak Hua to submit himself to the electric shock treatment to cure his headaches. Whilst administering the electric shock treatment to both Miss Y and Loh he gave him a fatal voltage and killed him. Adrian told Miss Y that Loh was killed by her stronger spirit which had left her and had entered Loh.
After the death of her husband Miss Y became depressed and attempted suicide. On 26 May 1980 she was admitted to Woodbridge Hospital. She was first diagnosed as suffering from psychotic depression (grief reaction) which was later changed to schizophrenia. She was discharged from Woodbridge Hospital within two weeks after admission. Two months after her discharge from hospital she stopped taking the medication dispensed to her.
The family of one of the victims Lucy Lau lodged a report of rape against and he was summoned by the police for questioning. Adrian became angry with the police and told both Miss X and Miss Y that he would give the police a lot of trouble by killing children. He instructed Miss Y to lure children to his flat.
At about 3pm on 24 January 1981 the Miss Y lured Agnes Ng from a playground near a church in Toa Payoh Estate to the flat. The little girl was drugged with Roche tablets and was sexually abused by Adrian. All three accused drowned her. Before they drowned her, Agnes Ng’s finger was pierced and all three sipped the blood. At about midnight they put her body in a travelling bag and left the dead body near a lift in a block of flats nearby.
Then Adrian instructed the Miss Y to abduct a boy. At about 2pm on 6 February 1981 Miss Y lured Ghazali Marzuki from the Clementi Housing Estate to the flat where he was drugged, gagged and tied. They drowned him at about 8pm that night and dumped his body at a playfleld near his flat at about l am the following morning. Before killing the boy, Adrian again went through the ritual of drawing blood from the boy by means of a syringe and drank it from a glass. Miss X and Miss Y scooped the blood from the glass and licked the blood.


THE EVIDENCE OF MISS X
In her evidence, Miss X said that she did not relate well with her parents and was gullible and naive. She met Adrian who in 1975 forced her into prostitution. He subjected her to electric shocks and assaults. She became terrified of him and agreed to do his every bidding. She claimed that in late 1978 she began to accept Adrian’s suggestion that she was possessed by an evil spirit. At the time of the killings she claimed she was utterly confused by Adrian and participated in the ritual of drinking blood, even her menstrual blood, and praying to the a deity goddess believing that such acts would bring her blessing and protection.

‘THE BATTLE OF THE PSYCHIATRISTS’ – DR RN FOR THE DEFENCE

Dr R Nagulendran, a consultant psychiatrist, gave evidence on her behalf. He had examined her after her arrest. He found that she was rational and relevant and could describe coherently the circumstances of the killings. In his opinion, the first appellant at the time she committed the offences was suffering from an abnormality of mind, namely, reactive depressive psychosis, severe enough to substantially impair her mental responsibility. Although she knew the nature of her acts and that they were contrary to law she nevertheless committed the offences under compulsion and the perceptual delusion that the ritual of consuming blood and child sacrifice was in keeping with her faith in the deity goddess. The state of mind of Miss X persisted by ‘the continual use of psychotropic drugs, electrical shocks and threats of psychological and physical assaults’ which were all administered by Adrian. After her arrest and the domination of Adrian was removed, she then realized ‘the magnitude of her horrendous acts’.


DR. CHEE FOR THE PROSECUTION
To rebut for the prosecution was Dr Chee Kuan Tsee , a consultant psychiatrist in Woodbridge Hospital, who examined Miss X in March 1981, reviewed her case in November 1982 and finally during the trial. He had also read the observation notes kept at the Changi Female prison, the statements made by all the accused to the police, the medical report of Dr. Nagulendran and the evidence adduced in court.
On the question whether Miss X was suffering from any abnormality of mind, Dr Chee disagreed with Dr Nagulendran and came to the conclusion that there was no evidence that Miss X was suffering from a reactive depressive psychosis. Whilst agreeing that the threats and assaults of Adrian, the regular electric shock treatments and the domination of Adrian might have made Miss X depressed, Dr Chee pointed out there were other evidence which showed that she was not suffering from reactive depression. Miss X did not give Dr Chee the impression that she had an unhappy married life with Adrian. As was recorded in the nursing notes Miss X was quite contented with Adrian who gave her fine clothings, cosmetics and whatever she wanted. During the few months preceding the killings she even visited the beauticians twice weekly. She stole some $14,000 from Adrian to pay for these visits. If she was depressed at the material time, she would have become ‘increasingly negligent of her personal appearance’. Miss X had said that she had put up with him not because of the torture and abuses but because of the good times. She also agreed that the electric shocks gave her relief from her headaches and that the electric shock treatments were given for this purpose and not to eradicate evil spirits in her. In her statement to the police the first appellant had admitted that she knew that Adrian had no supernatural powers, that he was a fake and that he resorted to trickery to cheat people of their belongings. In her evidence in court she retracted this part of her statement and claimed that she was acting under the compulsion of Adrian. But there was ample evidence that she actively assisted him in his deceptions, that she agreed with the killing of Agnes Ng Siew Hock when Adrian asked her and that she suggested where to dispose of the dead body.

THE COURT RULES AGAINST MISS X
The trial judges agreed with Dr. Chee:
”We find that there is evidence that when she lived with Adrian, there were occasions when she suffered from depression. But, on a balance of probabilities, we find that at the time, when (she) took part in the two murders, she was not suffering from reactive depressive psychosis. That which weighs heavy in our minds is that we had the benefit of hearing and seeing her give evidence in the witness box. The opinion we have of her is that she is an artftul and wicked person. In conspiracy with Adrian, she was at all times a willing party to his loathsome and nefarious acts. We have also considered her case on the footing that she was suffering from mental disease postulated by Dr Nagulendran. Even if she was suffering from abnormality of mind, we find that the abnormality was not such as substantially impaired her mental responsibility for her acts in the two killings.”
Her defence of diminished responsibility was therefore rejected.

THE EVIDENCE OF MISS Y

The evidence revealed that Miss Y’s father died when she was about eight years old. Owing to financial difficulties she was sent to live with an aunt in Penang, Malaysia. She returned to the family when she was 15 years of age. She is the third of six siblings. Her first sister had been suffering from schizophrenia for many years. After her return to Singapore she had worked as a seamstress, factory-hand and later a production operator for 7—8 years till her arrest.
In May 1978 she married Loh Ngak Hua. In early January 1980 he was electrocuted and died in Adrian’s flat. In consequence, she became depressed and her attempted suicide landed her in Woodbridge Hospital. Her recovery in the hospital was rapid. Except for one or two aggressive episodes, she was not observed to have behaved abnormally. Before the end of the first week, she was no more suicidal nor depressed. Whilst in hospital she was in frequent contact with Adrian on the telephone. In early July 1980 Dr Kok, who had treated her, was satisfied that she was well and discharged her from the hospital. She continued as an outpatient from 16 July 1980 to 31 January 1981. In these weekly and later monthly visits she was found to be well. This period coincided with the murder of Agnes Ng. Miss Y was on 31 January 1981 in a state of remission, which was a date falling between the dates of the two killings.
The Court recalled the evidence bearing on the roles played by Miss Y in the two killings, her demeanour and what she said had gone on in her mind. The murders were planned, which were preceded by earlier acts of abductions, and the killings were carried out with one common object, that was to revenge and confuse the police. She spent considerable time and the efforts to deceive and drug Agnes Ng so that she could be raped by Adrian and in kidnapping Ghazali.. She knew what was going on throughout the two killings and actively took part in removing the dead bodies.
After her arrest, there were no complaints of delusions at the Changi Prison Hospital. The entries made in the nursing notes recorded that she heard no voices, no hallucination and was not deluded. In one of the notes, it was recorded that Miss X said that Miss Y had told her in confidence that Miss Y would pretend to be mad so that she would get a lighter sentence. Miss Y was also recorded to have said that she had felt pity for Ghazali at the time of the killing when Adrian applied electric current on the body of the boy.

DR. N FOR THE DEFENCE

Dr Nagulendran also gave evidence on behalf of the second appellant and said that at the time she committed the offences, she was suffering from an abnormality of mind, ie schizophrenia, severe enough to have substantially impaired her mental responsibility for her acts. He said she was suffering from schizophrenia long before she met Adrian. At that time she had a primary delusion, that was that her mother wanted to harm her and had charmed her. After coming under the spell of Adrian her illness rapidly deteriorated so much so that she assaulted her mother in a cruel fashion and had poured urine on her head. This, to Dr Nagulendran, was evidence of emotional blunting. After Adrian had told her that her stronger spirit had left her and killed her husband, Miss Y claimed that she became depressed.
According to Dr Nagulendran, Miss Y suffered a relapse after her discharge from the hospital. When Adrian asked her, Miss Y accepted his suggestion and agreed to kill the children because she had developed a secondary delusion, namely that killing was good and approved by a deity goddess.

DR CHEE FOR THE PROSECUTION

On the other hand, Dr Chee Kuan Tsee gave rebuttal evidence for the prosecution. He said that even if she had been suffering from schizophrenia she was in remission at the material times. He said that if the alleged delusions were in fact experienced and if they were so preoccupying as to affect her mental responsibility they would also have affected her ability to work. The evidence was that she was able to work. Considering the Miss Y’s active participation in the abductions and killings, the disposals of the dead bodies and her mental condition during the period after her arrest when she was kept under observation, Dr Chee said that these evidence confirmed his view that Miss Y was at the material time in a state of remission.

THE RULING OF THE TRIAL JUDGES – MISS Y

In considering the case of Miss Y the trial judges said:
”In contrast to Miss X, Miss Y is a simple person who can be easily influenced. It is claimed that (she) is suffering from schizophrenia. Admittedly, there is a history of schizophrenia in her family. There is also evidence that she was in Woodbridge Hospital from about the end of May to the first week of July 1980. That diagnosis is in issue between the psychiatrists. On the evidence before us, it appears that there are grounds for the disagreement. However, what comes out clearly in the evidence is that since her discharge from the hospital, some six months before the commission of the offences, she was thereafter at all times in a state of remission. We accordingly have no difficulty in finding that even if Miss Y had suffered from schizophrenia, at the time of the commission of the offences she was not suffering from abnormality of mind as substantially impaired her mental responsibility for the two killings.” The defence of diminished responsibility put forward by Miss Y was rejected.
The Court recalled the evidence bearing on the roles played by Miss Y in the two killings, her demeanour and what she said had gone on in her mind. The murders were planned, which were preceded by earlier acts of abductions, and the killings were carried out with one common object, that was to revenge and confuse the police. She spent considerable time and the efforts to deceive and drug Agnes Ng so that she could be raped by Adrian and in kidnapping Ghazali.. She knew what was going on throughout the two killings and actively took part in removing the dead bodies.

Adrian Lim, Miss X and Miss Y were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. They appealed against their sentences but their appeals were dismissed. The Devil whose name they invoked to commit heinous crimes finally appeared in Court and sent them to their deaths.