Plot

Due to his desperation to pay off his debts, Lee decided to kidnap a girl for ransom, specifically a teenage girl who was the daughter of a rich family living in one of the affluent neighbourhoods in Bukit Timah. For his plan, Lee hired two illegal Chinese immigrants he met at a coffee shop near Hougang Plaza. One of the foreigners was 26-year-old Zhou Jian Guang (周建光 Zhōu Jiànguāng), a China-born native of Fujian Province, who was married with a five-year-old son, and he first came to Singapore to work as a construction worker in order to build a house for his parents, wife and son. Since July 1999, he lost his job but continued to stay in Singapore. The other was 29-year-old Shi Song Jing (施松进 Shī Sōngjìn), who came to Singapore from China in February 1997 due to him being duped about various well-paid jobs in Singapore. Shi was abandoned by his agent and he had to stay all alone in Singapore as a illegal immigrant for six months before getting a job as a plasterer. Both Zhou and Shi agreed to assist Lee in executing the kidnap plot.^[6][4]

Lee made a plan to abduct a target at Bukit Timah, starting with renting a van for the purpose of forcibly bringing their target into the van, and also rented a flat to use as their hideout and their place to confine the kidnap victim during the kidnapping. They also placed false license plates with false vehicle numbers on the van to avoid identification of their getaway vehicle.

Kidnapping of Sandi Yong

On the night of 9 September 1999, 14-year-old Sandi Yong Sze Hui (杨思慧 Yáng Sīhuì), a Secondary Two student of Monk's Hill Secondary School, was walking back home, wanting to celebrate her father's birthday, which fell on the same day she was kidnapped. Yong's father Yong Cher Keng (杨慈庆 Yáng Cíqìng) was a wealthy second-hand car dealer who resided at Sian Tuan Avenue in Bukit Timah. While on her way home, Yong was targetted by Lee and his accomplices, who abducted her and kept her inside her van. Subsequently, Yong was blindfolded and kept inside a bedroom, with her hands tied and her mouth covered with adhesive tape. During the time of her confinement, Yong was treated well and kindly by the trio, and she was not hurt.^[7]

After kidnapping Yong, Lee phoned Yong's father, asking for a ransom of S$500,000 in exchange for his daughter, threatening to harm the girl if he did not pay up. Yong's father reported the matter to the police, who helped monitor the situation while staying at the family's side to get updates about the case. A police operation was also set up with manpower invested full-time to search for Yong and identify the kidnappers. Yong's father and Lee later had two more phone conversations, and during each of the phone calls, Lee allowed Yong to talk to her father, and get updates that she was still safe and alright. Eventually, after some negotiations, it was agreed that Yong's father would pay a ransom of S$330,000 and upon payment, Lee would release the girl.^[8][9]

Yong's father, together with police officers, went to the agreed location in Tampines during night time, where Yong's father would drop off a black bag containing the money, and Shi would collect the bag once Yong's father was out of sight. By then, the police had identified the kidnappers through Lee's credit card, which Lee used to purchase a prepaid phone card for contacting Yong's father.^[8][9]

After receiving the ransom money, on the morning of 12 September 1999, about 60 hours after her abduction, 14-year-old Sandi Yong was released by Zhou on Lee's orders, and she safely returned home after hailing a taxi.^[10]

Arrest

Twenty minutes after the confirmation of the girl's release and safety, a team of police investigators, led by Inspector Richard Lim Beng Gee, arrested 33-year-old Vincent Lee at his Pasir Ris five-room flat for the kidnapping of Yong. Both Zhou and Shi were subsequently arrested at a flat in Telok Blangah Crescent. All three of them were charged with kidnapping for purpose of extorting a ransom.^[11][12] It was further revealed that Zhou and Shi entrusted the ransom money to five other illegal Chinese immigrants to help them to remit the ransom money out of Singapore. These five people were also arrested, charged and later jailed for dishonestly receiving stolen property; S$214,400 were recovered by the police.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Under Section 3 of the Kidnapping Act, if found guilty of kidnapping by ransom, Lee, Zhou and Shi would be sentenced to either life imprisonment or the death penalty, with caning optionally to be imposed if the offender receives life imprisonment.^[17] The trio were later additionally charged with the attempted kidnapping of another 14-year-old girl in March 2000.^[18]

The kidnapping of Yong was the first reported kidnapping case to occur in Singapore in a decade. The last case of kidnapping happened in April 1989, when 56-year-old goldsmith Phang Tee Wah was kidnapped by two men - 50-year-old Ibrahim Masod and 44-year-old Liow Han Heng - and later killed, and the men also attempted to extort ransom despite the death of Phang. Both men were sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering Phang, though only Ibrahim would eventually be hanged at Changi Prison on 29 July 1994 while Liow died of a heart attack in August 1993 before he could be executed.^[19][20][21]

Plea of guilt and sentence

On 24 April 2000, 33-year-old Vincent Lee Chuan Leong first stood trial in the High Court for kidnapping 14-year-old Sandi Yong. By then, Lee submitted to the court his intention to plead guilty to the kidnapping charge. After receiving the plea, the High Court convicted Lee for kidnapping Yong for ransom.^[22]

Lee's defence lawyer, Edmond Pereira, argued in his submissions for sentence that life imprisonment should be the appropriate punishment for Lee. He highlighted that Lee's financial difficulties were the motivation for his planning and execution of the kidnap plot. He stated that Lee confessed to his crime from the start and stuck to his story, and he also provided full cooperation during police investigations and his willingness to be a key witness for the prosecution against his two accomplices Shi Song Jing and Zhou Jian Guang, who both pleaded not guilty and set to claim trial on a later date.^[23] Pereira also emphasised on Lee's regret for the crime, and he had treated Yong well while confining her at the rented flat, and never harmed her despite his verbal threats and the spontaneous targetting of the girl as a victim. The prosecution did not submit on sentence.^[3]

After hearing the representations from the defence, the trial judge, Judicial Commissioner (JC) Chan Seng Onn of the High Court agreed to the defence's position that the death penalty was inappropriate in Lee's case, given that Lee did not mistreat or harm Yong during her time in captivity, Lee's absence of a criminal record, Lee's full cooperation during investigations, and no presence of weapons used during the kidnapping, and the judge also noted that the prosecution did not seek the death sentence in Lee's case. In fact, JC Chan originally wanted to subject Lee to an additional six strokes of the cane besides a life term due to Lee's role as the mastermind, the trauma and distress he caused to Yong and her family, and Lee himself having "hatched this detestable criminal scheme to kidnap for ransom a young vulnerable schoolgirl" and recruited others to do the job, but the significant number of mitigating factors highlighted by Pereira in his "persuasive" mitigation plea made the judge reconsider and hence declining to impose caning.^[3][24]

As such, JC Chan spared 33-year-old Vincent Lee Chuan Leong from both the gallows and cane, and hereby sentenced Lee to life imprisonment, the minimum punishment for kidnapping by ransom in Singapore.^[25] However, Lee appealed against his sentence, though the appeal was presumably rejected or withdrawn after it was filed.^[3]

At the time of Lee's sentencing, it was less than three years since the changes to the definition of life imprisonment under the law. Originally, on and before 20 August 1997, life imprisonment means a fixed jail term of 20 years in prison, and with good behaviour, an early release would be granted after serving at least two-thirds of the life sentence (13 years and 4 months). Due to the landmark ruling of Abdul Nasir Amer Hamsah's appeal on 20 August 1997, the interpretation of life imprisonment was changed to a term of incarceration for the rest of the convicted prisoner's natural life instead of 20 years in prison, and the new interpretation would apply to future crimes committed after 20 August 1997. Lee's crime took place in September 1999 and his life sentence was imposed in April 2000, hence his prison term would be equivalent to the remainder of his natural lifespan, with the possibility of parole after twenty years.^[26]

Fates of Zhou and Shi

The trial of Zhou Jian Guang and Shi Song Jing took place five days later in a separate courtroom, with another judge Judicial Commissioner (JC) Tay Yong Kwang hearing the case. Despite initially not pleading guilty, both Zhou and Shi chose to change their plea to guilt to kidnapping the 14-year-old girl for extorting the ransom. JC Tay sentenced both Zhou and Shi to life imprisonment on 29 April 2000, exactly the same sentence Lee received. Both men also did not receive caning, based on the facts that Yong was unharmed and treated well while in their captivity, as well as the legal principle of parity where an accomplice who played a more minor role than the mastermind cannot be subjected to a harsher penalty than the mastermind. Lee acted as a witness in the joint trial of the two Chinese men.^{[6][27][28][29]}

Both Zhou and Shi later appealed against the sentence. However, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals on 21 August 2000. Chief Justice Yong Pung How highlighted in the judgement that life imprisonment was the most lenient punishment for kidnapping under the laws of Singapore, and he also took to remind the pair that they would have been sentenced to hang if any harm had been done to the girl in the first place.^[30][31][32]