Murder of Pan Hui

Pan Hui, born around 1992 in Jilin Province, China, was the only child of her mother Xiu Yanhong. Xiu moved to Singapore for work in 1997 and later married bus driver Ong Pang Siew in July 2002, making Pan his stepdaughter. The couple had a son together in 2003, but the marriage deteriorated by 2005 amid suspicions of infidelity, and Xiu filed for divorce in May 2007, which was granted in October 2007 with Xiu gaining full custody of Pan and joint custody of the son.

On the evening of 20 October 2007, following a beer-drinking session, Ong called Xiu to ask about visiting his son, and the conversation turned heated. Ong subsequently went to Xiu's rented flat in Marsiling, where Pan was alone. A conversation about Pan's schooling escalated into an argument after Ong accused her of caning his son. Ong believed Pan picked up a knife, leading to a struggle. A fellow tenant, Zhao Jing, reported hearing Ong shout while strangling Pan and smashing her head against the floor; she alerted Xiu and called emergency services. By the time police arrived, Pan had died. A forensic pathologist found moderate to severe pressure applied to her neck along with superficial knife incisions, and a broken knife blade was recovered at the scene. Ong was arrested at the scene and charged with murder the following day.

At trial in the High Court beginning September 2008, Ong did not deny strangling Pan but argued he lacked intent to kill and raised a defence of diminished responsibility, supported by psychiatric testimony that he suffered from major depressive disorder and alcohol intoxication at the time. The prosecution, relying on a different psychiatrist, argued Ong acted with premeditation to cause his ex-wife pain. On 12 March 2009, the trial judge accepted the prosecution's position and convicted Ong of murder, imposing the then-mandatory death sentence.

Ong appealed, and on 8 November 2010 the Court of Appeal, comprising Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong and Judges of Appeal Andrew Phang and V. K. Rajah, found the defence psychiatrist's evidence more reliable than the prosecution's. The court ruled that Ong was suffering from diminished responsibility, reduced his conviction to culpable homicide not amounting to murder (manslaughter), overturned the death sentence, and remitted the case for re-sentencing.

On 11 May 2011, the original trial judge, Justice Tay Yong Kwang, sentenced Ong to ten years' imprisonment, backdated to his October 2007 arrest, rejecting the prosecution's call for life imprisonment. The judge cited Ong's improving mental condition, cooperation with authorities, and family support. Ong was reported to have been released from prison since 2017. Pan's funeral was conducted pro bono by undertaker Roland Tay, and her strong PSLE examination results were released posthumously.