Relationship with Frankie Tan

On 17 October 1988, Lee Chee Poh stood trial alone for her abetment of her husband's murder, represented by lawyer Loh Lin Kok (who was the former lawyer of the 1983 Andrew Road triple murderer Sek Kim Wah). By then, the prosecution agreed to, on account of Lee's full cooperation with the police and remorse over her husband's death, reduce Lee's charge to one of abetment of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Lee pleaded guilty and was convicted of the reduced charge. At the trial, it was then a story of how a budding romance ended in tragedy was told in the High Court.

Lee Chee Poh, who came from Malacca, Malaysia to Singapore for a better life, first met Frankie Tan sometime in the early or mid-1960s at a cabaret where she had been working for the past 10 years. Despite their 11-year age difference, Lee became romantically involved with Tan, and in 1966, she forked out her earnings to allow Tan to go to night school, where he graduated and completed his secondary school education. The couple were married in 1969, and they resided in Tan's mother's kampong house in Potong Pasir.

The next year, the couple moved into a two-room Housing and Development Board flat in Jalan Toa Payoh; by then, Tan was employed in the Amex bank. At some point in the early 1970s, Tan was embroiled in stock market difficulties, and in order to help her husband, Lee raised $20,000 out of her jewellery and savings. The couple later moved to their current home in a flat in Laguna Park in 1975. They had no children.

Discovery of Tan's infidelity and later abuse

In early 1981, Lee Chee Poh picked up a call from a distressed Vasavan Sathiadew, who informed her of a shocking event that he discovered from his wife Amnoi. Lee was full of disbelief when she heard Vasavan telling her that Amnoi had confessed to him earlier on that she, in fact, had been sleeping with Lee's husband for 11 years since their 1969 marriage. After cutting the call, Lee questioned her husband if it was true; Tan said yes, but defensively said that Amnoi seduced him first. It also came to light that Tan was philandering for other women during their years of marriage, and in addition to his adoptive brother Vasavan's wife, he had also had illicit affairs with the wives of his two other unnamed brothers, and his secretary.

As a result of this incident, Tan began to grow more unfaithful to his wife and more abusive towards her. Two years before his violent death, Tan brought home a 25-year-old divorcee named Thereisa Lee (unrelated to Lee Chee Poh) and let her live with them. After bringing the mistress back home every night, Tan told Lee (his wife) to sleep in another bedroom while he shared their bedroom with Thereisa Lee. By this time, he had attained a high-ranking position in the bank. He also later brought both Lee and his mistress overseas to Japan and the United States to allow Lee to get to know the mistress better and accept her as part of the family. During that period, he began to introduce Thereisa Lee to people as his wife, and he fathered a son with her. Lee had long resigned herself to her husband's philandering even before the appearance of Thereisa Lee, and despite the frequent abuses which Tan brought upon her, Lee still loved him and hoped that he could stop ill-treating her.^[7]

Finally, one day in 1984, Tan told Lee, his wife of 15 years, that he wanted a divorce. Despite consenting to it, Lee asked the ownership of their Laguna Park flat be given to her should the divorce be granted and finalized. Tan rejected. At the same time, Vasavan, who thirsted for revenge on Tan, who he fell out with, for the earlier adulterous affair between him and Amnoi, had been persuading Lee to have her husband killed since it was for certain that Tan would never make amends with her. Although she schemed with Vasavan to use black magic to kill Tan for his repeated infidelity and abuse, Lee maintained her love for her husband and never wanted him to die; in her heart, she still held on to the hope of her husband going back to her.

Two days before the fateful night on 24 October 1984, when Lee Chee Poh went to the airport to fetch her husband, Tan once again abused and ill-treated her. Lee's endurance finally snapped and she consented to Vasavan's plot to murder her husband. Lee Chee Poh gave Vasavan the spare keys to their flat and $4,500 as payment to those whom Vasavan would hire to murder Tan. Vasavan assured her that her husband's death would look natural with black magic. Still, despite so, Lee had never wanted her husband to die all along and she would have called off the murder had Tan treated her nicely; she also wanted to dissuade Vasavan from killing Tan on the day of the murder itself but could not reach him by phone.^[8][9]

Lee Chee Poh's testimony and cross-examination

The prosecution's case was largely based on the police statements given by the three men, and also the testimony of Lee Chee Poh, who took the stand as the prosecution's key witness. On the stand, she was extensively cross-examined by the three men's lawyers. When cross-examined by Fernando, Lee disagreed with Fernando's claim that there was never any plot to murder her husband, but just to beat him up. She did, however, agreed that till then, there was no agreement to kill her husband in any other way other than black magic, and she also told the court that Vasavan told her that the black magic would be powerful and make the death look natural. When she was cross-examined by Mr Lim (Phan's lawyer) and Mr Vardan (Wan's lawyer) respectively, Lee agreed that all along, she never wanted her husband to die. She disagreed with Mr Lim's suggestion that she was compelled into testifying against the three men in the murder trial after the prosecution reduced her charge while conceding with Mr Vardan's suggestion that Tan meant a lot to her and she was being totally dependent on him, which was why she could not likely want to kill her "golden goose". Not only that, during her cross-examination by Mr Lim, Lee said that even before the discovery of her husband's illicit affair with Thereisa Lee, she was already aware of his womanising and his affairs with all his three sister-in-laws (including Vasavan's wife Amnoi) and secretary. When asked if she ever tried to put a stop to it or object to these affairs, she answered that she could not do anything about it, as her husband was "such a person".^[14][15][16]

Validity of the statements

Inspector Lim Cheow Beng also took the stand. He read out the statements from Vasavan, in which Vasavan had admitted to the conspiracy with Lee to murder Tan, hiring and pay the three Thai men to help him commit the murder, and buying the 10 m long nylon rope to kill Tan while denying that he was involved in the grievous assault and murder of Tan despite being at the scene (however, Wan's statement said that Vasavan was involved in the attack). However, through his lawyer, Vasavan challenged the validity of the statements, claiming that they were not given voluntarily. Similarly, Phan and Wan also claimed that their statements were not given voluntarily. Phan said that he was illiterate and could not understand the charge he was facing or what he was charged with until the beginning of the trial; he claimed that he completely could not understand the Thai interpreter because he was illiterate and being from a remote village in Northern Thailand, where a different dialect was used. He also said that he was forced to make the statements after being assaulted by the police interrogators during questioning.

After a lengthy trial-within-a-trial, the two judges admitted the oral statements of all three men as evidence. They also accept the written statements of Wan and Vasavan, but reject Phan's written statements in view of his illiteracy.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Phan's testimony

Phan Khenapim, a worker of Vasavan's workplace

Phan was the first of the three to go onto the stand to testify. Phan said that Vasavan asked him to help assault a Chinese man who molested his daughter. He said that no monetary terms were discussed. According to Phan, on that night itself, he brought along both Ah Poo and Wan after agreeing with Vasavan to assist him in the assault. After arriving at Tan's flat, Phan said all four of them hid in Tan's bedroom and waited in ambush until Tan arrived home. Ah Poo was the first to attack Tan in his study room, followed by Phan and Vasavan, and finally Wan. Later, after he assaulted Tan, Phan said he left the room out of increasing fear to join Wan, who left the room first. He said that Vasavan also followed them. Ah Poo was the last to leave the room.

Wan's testimony

Wan Phatong, Phan's friend from another worksite

Wan was the second defendant to give his testimony after Phan. He said that when he first met Vasavan for drinks with Phan and Ah Poo, he did not know about their plans to assault Tan, and simply followed the others till they reached Tan's flat. He said that it was only then they arrived and entered the apartment he was informed that they were going to beat up Tan. Wan said that he reluctantly agreed to help since he had followed them. He said Ah Poo first attacked Tan before Phan and Vasavan joined in. Wan, who was the last to join, said that he was shocked and scared after witnessing the assault. For this, he left the room first, and he was followed by Phan and later Vasavan. Similar to Phan's testimony, Wan said that Ah Poo was the last to leave the room and had stayed in the room the longest. In the lift on the way down, Wan said that Vasavan paid the three of them $1,000 each; he said he initially did not accept the money but Ah Poo insisted and shoved it into his hand.^[1]

Vasavan's testimony

Vasavan Sathiadew, Tan's foster brother who masterminded the killing

Vasavan was the last of the accused to go onto the stand. Vasavan not only denied that he had any motive or intention to murder Tan, he claimed to be suffering from acute severe reactive depression. Veronica Sathiadew, Vasavan's 20-year-old daughter, corroborated this evidence, saying that ever since her mother's affair with her uncle Frankie Tan came to light, her father became very reserved and locked himself in his room. There were also frequent quarrels between her parents, according to Veronica, who also added that her father would throw things around and even slapped her mother. It is not known if Vasavan's unnamed son went to court to testify for his father.

It was only then a sense of peace returned to the family when Vasavan began going to church, but the arguments began again in early 1984 when Lee Chee Poh telephoned him frequently about his and her marital issues.^[21] Dr Wong Yip Chong, a notable psychiatrist, testified on the stand to support Vasavan's defence of diminished responsibility, stating that Vasavan was suffering from an abnormality of mind at the time of the crime. However, Dr Wong told the court that he did not believe his patient Vasavan when he said his intention was just to beat up, not kill, his adoptive brother. When asked if he had come across a case or medical evidence of diminished responsibility being raised when the accused was not present at the actual killing, Dr Wong conceded that he had not.^[22]

Vasavan also told the court of how he came to know about the affair. He said that in one particular night, when he showed his wife the family album and photographs of the victim Frankie Tan, Vasavan asked his wife if his foster brother was handsome; it was then he realised something was amiss when he heard Amnoi answering to him that Tan looked ugly and was more uglier without his pants on when he slept with her, and he discovered his wife's 11-year-long affair with Tan after further questioning. Amnoi, who denied that she had an affair while testifying in court, told Vasavan that night she did so because of a wife-swapping arrangement which Tan told her about, an arrangement Tan claimed to have made with Vasavan. Vasavan, who in fact did not have any sexual encounter with his sister-in-law and never made such an arrangement with Tan, felt betrayed and deceived about it and confronted Tan (who denied the affair) about it. This led to the deterioration of the brothers' relationship and that of Vasavan and his wife, and Vasavan said that he felt that his whole world had crumbled and could see his wife and Tan on bed together, having sex, which made him see Tan as a "desperately indecent sex maniac". He not only argued with Amnoi frequently, he became suspicious of her movements and also contemplated suicide twice in the first three months after discovering Tan's treachery.^[23][24]

Vasavan additionally denied that he first suggested to Lee to kill her husband or using black magic to kill Tan. He insisted that he had no intention to cause Tan's death and only told the three Thais, whom he recruited, to beat up Tan and not to kill him. He also said he did not buy the rope used to strangle Tan to death beforehand and said he did so at the spur of the moment (for the purpose to tie up Tan before assaulting him instead of strangulation). He said that he did not conspire with Lee or the others to kill Tan, and only told the Thais to help him beat up Tan under the pretext of his daughter being molested by a man, whom he did not name but pointed out as Tan. When cross-examined by the lawyers of Phan and Wan, he said the meeting with Phan was not pre-arranged and the plan to buy the rope was not carried out before 24 October 1984.^[25][26]

When cross-examined by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Bala Reddy, who led the prosecuting team, Vasavan denied the fact that he confessed to the police about his plan to kill Tan when DPP Reddy pointed out what he said in his oral and police statements. He insisted that he only wanted to beat up the victim and not to cause death. He denied any part in the killing and reiterated his denial of his motive to murder Tan to avenge himself for the adultery between Tan and Amnoi.^[27]

The trial lasted for 45 days. Judgement was reserved until 6 October 1989.^[28]