In September 1999, in order to discharge his bankruptcy, 33-year-old Vincent Lee Chuan Leong (李泉梁 Lǐ Quánliáng), a Singaporean marketing manager, together with Shi Song Jing (施松进 Shī Sōngjìn) and Zhou Jian Guang (周建光 Zhōu Jiànguāng), who were both illegal immigrants from China, kidnapped a 14-year-old female student in Singapore.
Shortly after releasing the girl, Lee was arrested by the Singapore Police Force for kidnapping the teenager for ransom, and his two accomplices were also caught.
After serving twenty years, ten months and nine days in jail, Lee was granted parole and is currently released from prison since 22 June 2020.
[3] On the night itself, at Bukit Timah, a 14-year-old girl was walking back home to her house, and was abducted by Lee and his accomplices inside their get-away vehicle.
[3] The ransom was paid on the night of 11 September, after the father left a bag containing the money at a vacant plot of land in Tampines and Shi was told the retrieve it.
[6] Twenty minutes after the confirmation of the girl's release and safety, a team of police investigators, led by Inspector Richard Lim Beng Gee, arrested 33-year-old Vincent Lee at his Pasir Ris five-room flat for the kidnapping.
Both men were sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering Phang, though only Ibrahim would eventually be hanged at Changi Prison on 29 July 1994, while Liow died of a heart attack in August 1993 before he could be executed.
He stated that Lee confessed to his crime from the start and stuck to his story, and he also provided full cooperation during police investigations and his willingness to be a key witness for the prosecution against his two accomplices Shi Song Jing and Zhou Jian Guang, who both pleaded not guilty and set to claim trial on a later date.
In fact, JC Chan originally wanted to subject Lee to an additional six strokes of the cane besides a life term due to Lee's role as the mastermind, the trauma and distress he caused the girl and her family, and Lee himself having "hatched this detestable criminal scheme to kidnap for ransom a young vulnerable schoolgirl" and recruited others to do the job, but the significant number of mitigating factors highlighted by Pereira in his "persuasive" mitigation plea made the judge reconsider and hence decline to impose caning.
Due to the landmark ruling of Abdul Nasir Amer Hamsah's appeal on 20 August 1997, the interpretation of life imprisonment was changed to a term of incarceration for the rest of the convicted prisoner's natural life instead of 20 years in prison, and the new interpretation would apply to future crimes committed after 20 August 1997.
Lee's crime took place in September 1999 and his life sentence was imposed in April 2000, hence his prison term would be equivalent to the remainder of his natural lifespan, with the possibility of parole after twenty years.
[22] The trial of Zhou Jian Guang and Shi Song Jing took place five days later in a separate courtroom with another judge, Judicial Commissioner (JC) Tay Yong Kwang, hearing the case.
Chief Justice Yong Pung How highlighted in the judgement that life imprisonment was the most lenient punishment for kidnapping under the laws of Singapore, and he also reminded the pair that they would have been sentenced to hang if any harm had been done to the girl.
During the interview and documentary, Lee continually expressed his regret for committing the crime, and he also spoke about some details of his life prior to and after his time in prison.
[32][6] The kidnapping was re-enacted for the Singapore television series Crimewatch and aired as the eighth episode of the show's 2000 season, the year the three kidnappers were sentenced.