Singaporean man jailed on rare charge of not reporting girlfriend’s death

When a Singaporean man found his girlfriend dead in her bedroom, he tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate her before leaving with his belongings.

He texted his girlfriend’s sister hours later to say only that the woman was uncontactable. When his girlfriend’s sister showed up at the unit with his girlfriend’s children, she found her sister dead and decomposing.

Jason Hong Kai Qi, 34, was sentenced to one week’s jail on Monday for a rare charge of failure to report a death.

He had earlier been charged with concealing a corpse, but this charge was downgraded and was not among the final slate of offences to which he pleaded guilty.

Hong also received penalties for unrelated traffic offences, such that his total jail sentence was three months and one week, along with a fine of S$1,000 (US$768) and a driving ban of 12 months.

The court heard that Hong was in a relationship with a 33-year-old woman, who had two children from a previous marriage. Her ex-husband had custody of the kids.