Singapore couple burnt corpse of girl, 4, who was starved, abused and fatally punched

For more than a year, Megan Khung suffered cruel abuse at the hands of her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, including starvation, beatings and being forced to sleep outside.

The four-year-old girl died after her mother’s boyfriend punched her in the stomach on February 21, 2020. Despite knowing she was in pain, the couple did not call for help and instead took drugs at home.

Hoping to escape detection after Megan died, they burnt the girl’s scarred and emaciated body to ashes in a purpose-built barrel. Her remains were never recovered.

Megan’s mother, 29-year-old Foo Li Ping, and her then-boyfriend, 38-year-old Wong Shi Xiang, were convicted in the High Court on Friday.

Wong pleaded guilty to four charges of culpable homicide, impeding investigations by disposing of a corpse, drug trafficking and drug consumption. Another 11 charges, mostly drug-related, were taken into consideration.

The prosecution is seeking 28 to 30 years’ jail and 15 to 17 strokes of the cane for Wong, while his defence lawyer Vinit Chhabra is asking for 20 to 22 years’ jail and 11 strokes of the cane.

“Where senseless violence is inflicted on a young child by her caretaker, a clear signal – showing that this is regarded with deep abhorrence and will not be tolerated – must be set,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Marcus Foo said.