On 3 June 1999, seven-year-old Andy Ang Wei Jie (洪伟杰 Hóng Wěijíe) collapsed in his home and died due to multiple injuries on his body.
[1][2] There were numerous injuries and cane marks on the boy's legs and face, suggesting that he had been severely beaten before his death.
[7][8][9] It was further revealed that Ang's father was a fugitive who was wanted for criminal charges by the Singapore Armed Forces and Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.
The case, which was re-classified as death by a rash or negligent act, remained unsolved for the next four years, and Ang's mother and two sisters went missing since.
[36] The prosecution, led by Tan Wen Hsien and James Lee, argued that Chong should be sentenced to the maximum period of 20 years' preventive detention, a special type of imprisonment reserved for recalcitrant offenders above the age of 30 and with at least three antecedents since age 16, and does not allow the possibility of parole even with good behaviour behind bars.
They argued that Chong had committed multiple offences since the age of 14 and had been going in and out of prison, and he re-offended by having cheated several people of less than S$300,000, and also maliciously subjecting Ang to an extremely horrific, prolonged and vicious abuse that tragically ended the life of the seven-year-old boy.
[37][38] On the same date of the trial, for the charges of abetting child abuse, making a false report to police and cheating, 40-year-old Sung Peck Imm was sentenced to four years and seven months' (or 55 months) imprisonment in view of her low IQ of 80, which made her vulnerable to being manipulated by Chong to abuse her children.
District Judge Kow stated that he cannot "fathom what sort of depravity and peversity to motivate someone to torture a young boy in such a gratuitous manner", citing especially that Chong had dripped hot candle wax on Ang's testicles, and described the abuse as "inhumane and degrading" and the plight of Ang as "heart-wrenching" due to the horrific abuse and 144 injuries on his body.
He also referred to a government psychiatrist's report that Chong was not suffering from an abnormality of the mind and he failed to empathize with the victims and tend to downplay his conduct.
Chong's former lawyer Subhas Anandan agreed to be interviewed on the show, and he stated that he was personally disturbed and horrified at the injuries suffered by Andy Ang and sympathize with the boy's plight, and he questioned his client's purpose of using excessive violence on the boy, even if accepting that Chong only did so out of discipline.
While it is not known if Chong faced any charges for having done so, the officer Kobi Krishna Ayavoo was subsequently brought to trial in January 2020,[48] and found guilty of receiving bribes of S$133,000 in November 2023, and sentenced in February 2024 to serve three years and two weeks in prison.