More than 6 years’ jail for funeral director who aided ex-boyfriend’s suicide
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 19 Oct 2024
Author: Christine Tan
Funeral director who then lied about how he died sentenced to 6 years and 2 months' jail.
Warning: This story mentions suicide and contains descriptions of a suicide.
A funeral director who aided her former boyfriend’s suicide and lied about how he had died was sentenced to six years and two months’ jail on Oct 18.
District Judge Shawn Ho concluded that Alverna Cher Sheue Pin had been involved in Mr Sean Wee Jun Xiang’s suicide plans, including by joining a “trial run” of the act and agreeing to oversee his funeral arrangements.
Handing down the sentence, Judge Ho said: “The offence of abetting suicide clearly signals society’s opposition to suicide. Life is sacred.”
Cher has filed an appeal against her conviction and sentence.
The 42-year-old was found guilty on Sept 13 of intentionally aiding the suicide of Mr Wee, 32, on May 16, 2020, and obstructing the course of justice.
Cher, the director of City Funeral Singapore and Christian Funeral Singapore, was first charged in December 2020 with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The charge was reduced in October 2021 to aiding Mr Wee’s suicide.
The single mother of two had planned to plead guilty in July 2023, but changed her mind and claimed trial to the two charges.
Cher and Mr Wee started a romantic relationship in 2019.
The court previously heard that Mr Wee made Cher the beneficiary of a $1 million life insurance policy he had purchased. She was to receive 20 per cent of the payout.
However, it was revealed that as Mr Wee died less than a year after the insurance policy was purchased, Cher did not receive any payout.
As Cher did not ask him to postpone the act by a mere 11 days – after which she would be eligible for the payout – Judge Ho concluded that this factor did not motivate her to aid in Mr Wee’s suicide.
From February to May in 2020, Mr Wee made plans to end his life and make his death appear natural.
Cher claimed at the trial that her former boyfriend had been upset because he lost money in various investments.
On May 16, 2020, Mr Wee collected a nitrogen gas tank and drove his car to a carpark at Block 145A Bedok Reservoir Road. He told Cher to turn up at 2pm and texted “commencing” to her.
Cher arrived at around 1.45pm in a van and found Mr Wee still alive. Donning latex gloves to prevent her prints from being left behind, she entered his car and sat with him.
Prosecutors said that instead of calling the police or seeking help, she released more gas from the tank.
Cher told the court that Mr Wee had helped move the nitrogen tank from his car to her van before he returned to his car to lie down in the driver’s seat.
Cher left Mr Wee alone in the car after that.
She returned at around 4pm and found him dead.
She then got one Lawrence Cheo Oon Hooi to drive the van away.
Although Cher denied she had assisted Mr Wee, the judge noted she had contradicted herself.
In statements she gave to the police, she admitted to turning the valve of the gas tank “about four to five times”.
The judge concluded that Mr Wee had killed himself by nitrogen gas inhalation, and the evidence showed Cher had intentionally aided him.
The prosecution asked for the “upper half of the sentencing range” for the offence of intentionally aiding a suicide, without specifying an exact number.
The maximum jail term for this offence is 10 years.
Additionally, prosecutors asked for another one to 1½ year’s jail for the offence of obstruction of justice.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Marcus Foo said Cher was “no passive onlooker”, noting that she had written Mr Wee’s eulogy and agreed to dispose of evidence on his behalf.
Cher later claimed she had tried to dissuade Mr Wee from ending his life, but DPP Foo said these claims were lacking in credibility.
DPP Foo said: “We say that, ultimately, the mitigation plea exposes (Cher)’s complete lack of remorse, inability to accept responsibility for her actions (and) betrays an attempt to undermine the court’s findings.”
Cher’s lawyer, Mr Peter Ong from Peter Ong Law Corporation, argued that Cher’s culpability was low, as Mr Wee was the one who did all the planning and research about his suicide.
The defence wrote in its mitigation plea: “Her involvement stemmed from emotional manipulation by (Mr Wee) and a misguided sense of duty to honour his last wishes.”
The lawyer contrasted this with the 1987 case of a 27-year-old married man who instigated his girlfriend to take her own life in an attempt to gain $500,000 from her insurance policies.
The girlfriend jumped to her death from his ninth-floor Chai Chee Avenue flat on June 16, 1987. The man was sentenced to eight years’ jail in 1991.
In that case, the man manipulated her from the beginning, but there was no manipulation on Cher’s part of Mr Wee, said the lawyer.
He added that Cher had stopped Mr Wee from a previous suicide attempt, and had even been prepared to sell her house to pay off his debts.
As her lawyer spoke, Cher wiped away tears while seated in the dock.
Mr Ong asked for not more than a year’s imprisonment for his client, adding that she had been “punished enough”.
He said: “I don’t think that she will dare to do this again. This is her lesson.”
Source: Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
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