SINGAPORE, April 22 — Unwilling to face his crimes, Loh Ping Huang decided to flee Singapore by paying a Malaysian boatman S$6,000 (RM21,039). He managed to evade detection and escape to Malaysia and Vietnam, where he lived as a fugitive for six years.

However, the long arm of the law caught up with him after the Vietnamese authorities nabbed him in 2022 and repatriated him to Singapore.

Loh, a former member of a secret society, had previously punched a man who he thought was staring at a woman he was with, leaving the man in a vegetative state and later dying from pneumonia complications. Loh had also smashed a flowerpot onto another man’s head during a scuffle in a separate incident.

In the State Courts today, Loh, who is now 50, pleaded guilty to a charge each of voluntarily causing grievous hurt, voluntarily causing hurt with a weapon and leaving Singapore at an unauthorised place of embarkation.

He also pleaded guilty to being a member of a secret society from 2010 to 2022, and also for inviting a person to join the gang.

Another six similar charges will be taken into consideration during sentencing on May 16.

District Judge Shawn Ho called for a report to determine if Loh would be suitable for corrective training.

Corrective training is a form of long-term incarceration to reform offenders and correct behaviours. It involves serving jail time for up to 14 years and is generally imposed on recalcitrant offenders who commit serious offences.

What happened

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Timotheus Koh told the court that on June 12 in 2015, Loh was accompanying a woman in her 20s to her home along Lorong 30 Geylang after a night of drinking.

At about 7.15am, Loh, who was heavily intoxicated, thought that a man in his 60s was staring at the woman.

Loh shouted at the man to leave, but he did not. They both then got into a verbal argument.

The man picked up a plank and tried to swing it at Loh, but Loh punched the man repeatedly in the face, causing the man to drop the plank.

When the man tried to stand up, Loh punched him once more before leaving.

As a result of the fight, the man was left in a vegetative state up until his death on July 25, 2019.

An autopsy later showed that his death was caused by pneumonia complicated by a head injury.

An underlying heart disease was also found to be a contributory cause of death, DPP Koh added.

Fled Singapore on a boat

Loh was charged on June 13 in 2015 for the attack. While on bail, he got into a fight at a pub in Geylang on July 9, 2016.

During the fight, he picked up a flowerpot and smashed it at a man’s head, leaving him with bruises.

DPP Koh said that Loh decided to flee Singapore sometime in mid-2016 to avoid going to prison for his crimes.

Loh paid a Malaysian boatman S$6,000 to help him leave Singapore illegally. He eventually managed to escape by boarding a boat near the Changi Point Jetty in order to reach Johor, Malaysia.

Court documents did not state how the boat evaded detection by the Singapore authorities.

"The accused stayed in Malaysia for about three years before he decided to leave for Vietnam through Thailand and Cambodia because he feared that he would be arrested by the Malaysian police and sent back to Singapore,” DPP Koh said.

"He stowed away on buses to get to Vietnam.”

Loh stayed in Vietnam until he was arrested by the Vietnamese authorities and taken back to Singapore on Sept 26, 2022.

Today, DPP Koh called for a corrective training suitability report before listing Loh’s former convictions.

They include past offences of rioting with a deadly weapon and voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant in 2000.

Loh’s "history of lawlessness and violence” and his absconding while court proceedings were ongoing showed the severity of the case, DPP Koh added.

For voluntarily causing grievous hurt, Loh faces up to 10 years’ jail and a fine or caning.

For voluntarily causing hurt with a weapon, the penalty is a maximum of seven years’ jail, fine and caning

For being part of a secret society, Loh can be jailed for three years or fined S$5,000, or both.

For leaving Singapore at an unauthorised place of embarkation, he can be jailed up to six months or fined S$2,000, or both. — TODAY