In 1960, an experimental-type offshore penal colony was established on Pulau Senang by the Singapore government, after the proposal was made by former political prisoner and future president Devan Nair.

The settlement was established as a countermeasure to resolve the issue of prison overcrowding, as attributed to the large number of suspected gang members being arrested and detained without trial per the government's tough crackdown on secret societies in Singapore.

However, despite such an outlook, he was also a strict enforcer of discipline and would not tolerate any rule-breaking or defiance of orders from any inmates, and often harshly penalized those detainees who broke the rules.

Several other people, including Deputy Superintendent John William Tailford, were grievously hurt but they later survived with timely medical intervention.

According to Low Ah Kok, a settlement guard, the hospital and petrol station on Pulau Senang was not spared from the damage inflicted by the rioters.

[14] The trial prosecutor was Francis Seow, who was notable for prosecuting law student Sunny Ang and bar hostess Mimi Wong for murder.

[17] Chong Sek Ling, a former gang leader who spent time on Pulau Senang, testified that after an event in July where thirteen carpenters were sent back from Pulau Senang to Changi Prison due to their refusal to repair a jetty during nighttime, he overheard more than ten high-ranking gang leaders discussing about their plan to kill Dutton and the other officers of the settlement, due to their dissatisfaction of the treatment they faced and hatred against Dutton for his supposed iron-fist rule and discipline.

One of the things he saw while hiding in the forest was some of the rioters going after Goh Keng Wah (alias See Kar Chua or monitor lizard in Hokkien), a detainee who was an informant of the guards.

[21][22] Tan King Hak, an engine diesel instructor of the settlement, also testified that after escaping the radio room, he saw a detainee Lim Tee Kang (Accused No.

[25] Lee Mow Cheng (李茂忠 Lǐ Màozhōng), a settlement guard who was formerly jailed in 1960 on Pulau Senang before his subsequent release and employment as a guard, stated that while hiding from the rioters under an unserviceable car, he witnessed several detainees, including Quek Hai Cheng, rescuing the heavily injured Tailford and brought him to safety.

[26] Many other detainees, as well as the surviving prison settlement attendants and guards - including Wang Loke Hai (alias Cartoon), Chia Teck Whee and Robert Choo - were also called to the stand to give evidence for the prosecution, and they identified those whom they seen taking part in the riots.

[32][33] After the defence and prosecution made their final submissions, the trial judge Murray Buttrose spent five days summing up the case for the jury to consider before reaching their verdict and adjourned the proceedings on 11 March 1964.

Before passing sentence, Justice Buttrose addressed to these eleven men in his own words: "Here, I feel bound to tell them that they have to consider themselves among the most fortunate people alive, in that evidence apparently failed in the eyes of the jury, to come up to the standard which the law requires before they could be convicted of the charges of murder.

11 (real name Hoe Hock Hai; one of the eighteen guilty of murder) allegedly proclaimed based on the testimony of prosecution witness Chong Sek Ling.

He stated that the rioters had not only violently murdered the four victims, they also destroyed the whole penal settlement on Pulau Senang within more than half an hour, in an impossibly devastating and ferocious manner and of immeasurable speed.

"[35] Before Justice Buttrose imposed the death penalty (the mandatory sentence for murder) on the eighteen rioters, every person present in the courtroom (including the defendants, prosecution and defence counsel) were ordered to stand as Justice Buttrose publicly pronounced the verdict of death in his own words: "The sentence of the Court upon you is that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison and hence to a place of execution, and that you be hanged by the neck until you be dead and may the Lord have mercy on your souls."

Before their hangings, Tan Kheng Ann, who was English-educated, penned a letter on behalf of himself and the seventeen others to show their gratitude to Reverend Khoo for his kindness and guidance.

Hundreds of relatives of the eighteen men, who all made their final visits on the eve of the executions, gathered outside the prison compound to reclaim the bodies.

19; 周添发 Zhōu Tiānfā), who was one of the eighteen rioters hung for the most serious charges of murder, told the press that his brother, a former star soccer player who once represented Singapore and had a bright future ahead, had paid the ultimate price for killing the four prison officers, and he expressed his sadness over Chew's execution.

Lim Ah Mei, the 64-year-old mother of Hoe Hock Hai, who was also among the eighteen condemned, sadly stated that her son was only 24 when he was put to death.

[51] According to a Sin Chew Jit Poh article published on 30 October 1965, the mother of one of the executed men was reportedly so distraught that she nearly collapsed at the sight of her son's body and had to be helped up by relatives.

[52] Five years after the riots occurred, Pulau Senang was declared out of bounds in 1968, and the government's subsequent plans to renovate the island for economic means failed to materialize.

In 1984, the island was converted to a live-firing range, where it was provided exclusively to the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) for military training and restricted to outsiders.

[56] In a Straits Times article which reported Seow's death and his former cases as a prosecutor, a retired civil servant recalled in an interview about Seow's determination to seek the death penalty for at least a dozen of the Pulau Senang rioters, as he firmly believed that a very clear signal should be given to all prisoners that anyone found guilty of the intentional killing of a prison officer would face the full brunt of the law, which he fulfilled in the end by successfully having eighteen of the 58 rioters sentenced to the gallows.

Singapore-based British journalist Alex Josey wrote a book about the case, titled Pulau Senang: The experiment that failed, and it was first published in 1980.

[60][61] Kok Heng Leun directed the play, with an all-male ensemble cast, which included Oliver Chong, Chad O'Brien, Ong Kian Sin, Tay Kong Hui, Peter Sau, Rei Poh and Neo Hai Bin.

This also marked the first time Michael Dutton get to come to Singapore to visit his elder half-brother's grave, seventy years after he last met his late brother.

Michael stated that to a certain extent, he felt sorry for the eighteen condemned who killed his brother but eventually paid for it with their lives, although he agreed that they should be punished for the crime.

Filled with sadness over the case, Richard stated that he was unable to believe how his fifth eldest brother, who had a few months left before his release date, would take part in the riot and commit such a brutal act and said that prior to his execution, Tan Kheng Ann, who at first denied murdering Dutton, eventually resigned to his fate and asked Richard to take care of their mother.

[63][64] Also, law professors, lawyers, police officers and humanities experts, including some from the National University of Singapore, were approached to give an analysis of the case, stating that the Pulau Senang incident would have been averted had the shortcomings like the abuse from prison guards and overworking had been addressed adequately.