He surrenders with family's blessings

He was the instigator of a 2003 attack in Lucky Chinatown mall that left a polytechnic student dead.

But Hoe Cherh Inn's accomplices, who escaped to Malaysia, covered up for him and got another man to take the rap for him last March.

The man, Larry Lim Liang Long, was found out about a month later and the charges against him were dropped.

But he has since been sent to jail for other offences.

During this time, Hoe, whose nickname was "ka juak", or cockroach in Hokkien, remained in Singapore and went on with his life.

He worked as a waiter, a bartender, a delivery man and a vegetable seller before becoming a systems analyst supervisor in 2006.

He got married two years later and has two daughters, aged two and three.

His job took him to Manila until July 1 last year, when he returned and turned himself in to the authorities at Changi Airport.

Hoe, 34, pleaded guilty to culpable homicide not amounting to murder yesterday, and was jailed for six years and six months.

Here are the events that led up to Hoe's surrender:

STARTED FIGHT

On Feb 15, 2003, polytechnic student Wong Dao Jing, 18, was at the Genie World arcade in Lucky Chinatown shopping centre at about 7pm when he saw a backpack on the floor next to the game machine he was using.

He told two friends that he was going to take the backpack to check its contents.

About five minutes later, Sean Leong Hung Chu and Teo Guan Kah came looking for the backpack, which belonged to their friend, Toh Chun Siong.

When Dao Jing's friends said he had the backpack, Toh demanded its return.

Dao Jing came back soon after and handed the backpack to Leong outside the arcade.

While going through his bag, Toh claimed there was "something missing".

Teo and Leong asked Dao Jing to go a nearby staircase to talk. Worried for his safety, his friends followed. Soon after, Hoe and Leong Soon Kheong, who was the ringleader, arrived and accused Dao Jing of stealing from them.

ONE-ON-ONE

Hoe pushed Dao Jing on the chest and challenged him to a one-on-one fight.

When the student refused, Hoe lost his cool and punched him twice in the face. The rest joined in, punching and kicking the teenager.

Fearing for his safety, Dao Jing's friends knelt down on each side of Leong, who was not involved in the melee, apologising and begging him to let their friend off.

But Leong said the beating was not very serious and their friend would not die.

After a while, Leong told the rest, "Enough, let's go" in Hokkien.

The group left after warning Dao Jing's friends not to call the police.

One of them called for an ambulance, which took Dao Jing to Singapore General Hospital.

By then, he was unconscious. He never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead half an hour later.

WEIGHING ON CONSCIENCE

After the attack, four of the men fled to Malaysia, leaving Hoe behind.

They met Lim in Johor Baru and conspired to conceal Hoe's identity from the authorities.

But the attack continued to weigh on Hoe's mind over the next 10 years, his lawyers said during mitigation yesterday.

Defence counsel Choo Yean Lin said: "He voluntarily returned from Manila in order to surrender himself to the authorities here, with the blessings of his wife, parents as well as in-laws, as he felt a sense of 'guilty consciousness' every time he thought of (the crime)."

During sentencing, Justice Chan Seng Onn noted that Hoe had started the physical violence, after which the rest joined in.

"At the time, you were 24. According to the statement of facts, you were the one who started the fight. Everyone else jumped in and assaulted the deceased," he said.

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