PERTH, Dec 11 — A 27-year-old Singaporean man accused of deliberately hitting and killing a cyclist with his car in Perth earlier this year, will remain in custody in Australia, The Straits Times has reported.
Ng Jing Kai appeared via video-link from Hakea Prison, a maximum-security facility in Canning Vale, Western Australia, during a court hearing at Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court today.
No plea was entered during the hearing, and Ng did not apply for bail, the report added.
He is charged with the murder of a 48-year-old cyclist in what is believed to be an act of vigilantism related to a property dispute.
According to The Straits Times, the incident occurred on May 24 in Carlisle, a suburb of Perth, when Ng allegedly drove his grey Kia Carnival into the cyclist.
Several people, believed to be Ng’s family and friends, were in the car at the time.
After striking the cyclist, Ng is said to have dragged him for over 30m. He was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital, where he later died.
Police quickly charged Ng with murder the same day, and a possible property dispute is being investigated as the motive behind the attack.
Detective Inspector David Gorton from the Western Australia Police Force’s major crime division said at the time that officers were looking into a personal property item involved in an earlier incident between Ng and the victim.
Ng, a mathematics tutor with Indigo Education Group, will remain behind bars until his next court hearing on February 19.
If convicted, he faces a potential life sentence under Western Australian law for murder.
