Murder of Tran Cam Ny

On 19 November 2014, inside a flat in Ang Mo Kio, a 32-year-old Vietnamese woman named Tran Cam Ny was suffocated to death by her 40-year-old Singaporean boyfriend Jackson Lim Hou Peng (林豪平 Lín Háopíng). Lim, who was previously jailed for drug offenses, was charged with murder after his arrest on the same day of his girlfriend's death. It was revealed that Lim and Tran were at the flat (which belonged to Lim) consuming drugs and as Tran kept making loud sounds, Lim covered her mouth to stop her making any sounds out of fear of attracting the neighbours, and it caused Tran to be suffocated to death. Lim was eventually found guilty of manslaughter and drug consumption, and sentenced to jail for nine and a half years and given three strokes of the cane.^[1]

Death of Tran Cam Ny

On 20 November 2014, police responded to a call for assistance and arrived at a rented flat in Ang Mo Kio, where a 32-year-old woman was found motionless inside the bedroom of the flat's male tenant. The woman, identified as Tran Cam Ny, who was a Vietnamese citizen, was pronounced dead by paramedics present at the scene.^[2][3]

On the same day itself, the tenant, who was described to be a man with heavily tattooed arms, was arrested by the police on suspicion of killing Tran. As the murder happened in a neighborhood mostly populated with the elderly and families, the case brought shock to many residents residing in the neighborhood itself. According to the suspect's neighbours, the suspect, whom they only knew as "Jack", had always been cordial and never caused trouble, and he always kept a low profile while he lived in the rented flat for many years. "Jack", whose real name was Jackson Lim Hou Peng, was also noted to have frequented the nearby coffee shop and often drank alone, and in recent years, he also would bring various different women (mostly Vietnamese) to his flat.^[4][5]

The fifth of eight siblings, Tran, who first came to Singapore for work in the early 2000s, was married twice to Singaporean men and she had one nine-year-old daughter with her first husband, with whom she divorced after two years of marriage.

On 22 November 2014, two days after the murder of Tran Cam Ny, 40-year-old Jackson Lim Hou Peng was officially charged with murder in the State Courts of Singapore. If convicted under the Singaporean Penal Code, Lim would receive the death penalty.^[11][12]

After he was charged, Lim was remanded for investigations. He was also scheduled to undergo psychiatric evaluation for three weeks until 12 December 2014.^[13] Subsequently, the remand order was extended by one additional week upon the prosecution's request.^[14]

On 19 December 2014, it was revealed in court that Lim was found to be "not of unsound mind" and fit to plead in court, and he was remanded at Central Police Division for further investigations.^[15][16]

Background of Jackson Lim

Personal life

Jackson Lim Hou Peng was born in Singapore on 18 July 1974. Lim was likely an only child and he had a paternal aunt. Lim's father, who was divorced during his son's childhood, contracted colon cancer and died in October 2015. During his adulthood, Lim was married to a Vietnamese woman but by 2014, both of them became estranged and Lim's wife returned to Vietnam and lived separately from him. It was after his separation from his wife, when Lim first met his Vietnamese girlfriend Tran Cam Ny (who was then working as a KTV hostess)^[17] on Facebook, and they became romantically involved with each other, and they also agreed to marry each other a short time before the killing of Tran.^[18][19][20]

Lim was previously convicted and jailed for various offences from 1992 to 2003. In 1992, Lim was charged and convicted of theft under Section 380 of the Penal Code, and in 1997, Lim was found guilty of being part of an unlawful assembly under Section 143 of the Penal Code, although the length of his imprisonment for these first two crimes were unspecified. On 12 October 2001, Lim was charged with consuming ketamine and jailed for 12 months. And on 5 August 2003, Lim was found guilty of ketamine trafficking and norketamine consumption, and sentenced to a total of six years' imprisonment and six strokes of the cane for both offences (including three years for the consumption charge).^[20]

Lim's confession

The following was the official version of the murder of Tran Cam Ny, based on the confession of Jackson Lim and other evidence gathered by the authorities.

On the night of 19 November 2014, Tran stayed over at Lim's one-room rental flat in Ang Mo Kio and she was joined by two of her friends. Lim started to consume methamphetamine together with Tran. Shortly after, Tran started to argue with Lim over him spending the money that she gave him on other women. Although Lim backed out and entered his bedroom, Tran followed him and argued with him again, and it escalated into a physical altercation, in which blows were exchanged between Lim and Tran, and Tran's two friends had to step in to stop the fight.^[21][20]

On the morning of 20 November 2014, the date of the murder itself, Tran's two friends departed the flat, leaving only Tran and Lim together inside the flat. Tran, who was still under the influence of drugs, did not stop shouting and Lim had to slap her multiple times to stop her from continuing to make noise, out of fear of attracting their neighbours' attention and it would, in turn, caused them to be arrested for drug consumption by the police. Still, Tran continued to shout, and it drove Lim into using the blanket to cover her mouth and face with both hands. After two attempts of smothering, Lim stopped upon seeing blood flowing out of Tran's mouth, and he later realized that Tran was becoming unresponsive and motionless.^[22][23][20]

After realizing that Tran was no longer responsive, Lim tried multiple times to resuscitate her and he also called his father and friend for help before calling for an ambulance, and the call operator also instructed Lim step by step to revive Tran. After paramedics arrived at the scene, Tran was pronounced dead and on the same day, Lim was arrested for murdering Tran. Dr Paul Chui, a forensic pathologist, certified that Tran died we a result of suffocation.^[20] Tran herself also tested positive for drugs, and Lim was likewise tested positive for drugs.^[24]

Trial and sentencing

On 14 March 2016, Jackson Lim Hou Peng officially stood trial at the High Court for killing Tran Cam Ny. By then, Lim's murder charge was reduced to a lesser offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, also known as manslaughter in Singapore's legal terms, and the reduction of the charge allowed Lim to no longer face the death penalty for murdering Tran. As the manslaughter charge was brought forward under Section 304(b) of the Penal Code, which dictates an offence of manslaughter committed without an intention to cause death, Lim faced a jail term of up to ten years' imprisonment with a possible fine or caning.^[20]

At the start of his trial, Lim pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge, and aside from this, he also pleaded guilty to one count of methamphetamine consumption under the Misuse of Drugs Act, which carries a possible sentence of between five and seven years in jail and caning of between three strokes and six strokes. A third charge of possessing drug utensils for consumption was also consented to be taken into consideration during sentencing. During the trial itself, Lim was represented by defence lawyer Jennifer Lim, while the prosecution was led by both Lee Zu Zhao and Eugene Lee, and the trial was presided by veteran High Court judge Tay Yong Kwang.^[25][20]

The prosecution proposed an aggregate sentence of not less than 11 years' imprisonment and three strokes of the cane, which comprised of the minimum sentence of five years and three strokes for the drug charge and six years for the manslaughter charge. They argued that although the victim was shouting and acting hysterically, there was no provocation from her and did not pose a threat to the accused, and an aggravating factor was Lim trying to keep Tran silent by covering her mouth to avoid catching neighbours' attention and in turn, attracting retribution from the authorities for drug abuse. On the other hand, they also accepted that the case was not as aggravating as some precedent cases of manslaughter due to the presence of similar mitigating factors as Lim's case.^[26][20]

In mitigation, Lim's defence counsel asked for leniency. Lim's lawyer Jennifer Lim argued that her client had shown genuine contrition and remorse for causing the death of his girlfriend, whom he loved dearly and wanted to marry, and there was no intention to kill Tran. The defence also stated that Lim only wanted to calm Tran down throughout the instances of their quarrel and Tran's uncontrollable screaming and shouting while under the effects of drugs, and he only did the covering of Tran's mouth for her good and to not get both of them into trouble, and this led to a wrong turn of events that resulted in Tran's death. Therefore, the defence argued for a jail term of three to four years on the charge of manslaughter, and they did not object to the prosecution's proposed sentence of five years' jail with three strokes of the cane for the drug charge. Lim's lawyer also cited that Lim's parental aunt and her family continued to visit Lim while he was behind bars, and they were willing to provide him familial support after his release, and added that Lim's father died before his trial, and thus proposed for the court to exercise its mercy during sentencing.^[27][20]

On the same date, Justice Tay Yong Kwang delivered his verdict. The judge noted that the prosecution and defence concurred on the sentence for drug use and agreed with both sides on the proposed sentence, and thus he focused his crux of judgement on the sentence for the manslaughter of Tran. Justice Tay accepted that in terms of height and build, Lim indeed possessed undue advantage over the victim, but he also accepted that Lim did not harbour any intention to hurt Tran, and observed that the couple were happily consuming drugs up until Tran's erratic behaviour and Lim having unintentionally killed the girlfriend whom he loved dearly and wanted to marry, and he also found Lim to be truly remorseful of killing Tran, based on Lim's immediate response of rendering assistance for Tran upon finding her unresponsive. On this basis, Justice Tay accepted that the sentence should carry some degree of leniency in view of the aggravating and extenuating circumstances of the case.^[28]

Therefore, Justice Tay sentenced Lim to jail for four years and six months on one count of manslaughter, and he also meted out a jail term of five years with three strokes of the cane for the second charge of drug consumption. Additionally, Justice Tay ordered the two prison terms to run consecutively and commence from the date of Lim's arrest. In total, 41-year-old Jackson Lim Hou Peng was sentenced to 9+1⁄2 years' imprisonment and three strokes of the cane. Additionally, in his sentencing remarks, Justice Tay highlighted that the killing of Tran was a tragic one and it demonstrated the tragic consequences of drug consumption, and he personally addressed Lim in court, telling him to not take drugs again after his release from prison in the future.^[29][20]

According to a friend of Tran, who gave his surname as Chew, he revealed that Tran's family was still saddened over the death of Tran, and he himself felt the jail term of over nine years was inadequate for Lim, whom he felt deserved the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for causing Tran's death. Chew also felt that it was doubtful that Lim and Tran would want to marry each other, alleging that Tran did not like how Lim treated her and their relationship was more of a "fling".^[30]

Aftermath

In the aftermath of Jackson Lim's conviction and imprisonment, the death of Tran Cam Ny was re-enacted in a Singaporean Chinese-language crime show The Convict, in which Lim and Tran's names were changed to protect their privacy. Lim's show counterpart was portrayed by Singaporean actor Benjamin Heng while Tran's show counterpart was portrayed by Singaporean actress Charmaine Sei.^[31]

Since 2024, Lim, who served his sentence at Changi Prison, had been released from prison.

See also

• Caning in Singapore
• List of major crimes in Singapore

References