Man on trial for allegedly murdering stepdaughter takes witness stand
By Zul Othman, TODAY | Posted: 06 October 2008 2319 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Sobbing uncontrollably on the stand, Mr Ong Pang Siew — the man accused of murdering his China-born teenage stepdaughter — told the High Court yesterday he had not intended to kill the girl.

“I am prepared to accept the death sentence if I really did it intentionally,” he said in Hokkien.

“I went to repair our relationship... I also wanted to ask if she was happy to have received her (Singapore) Identity Card,” Mr Ong said during Day Four of the trial.

The 46-year-old private bus driver is alleged to have murdered 15-year-old Ong Pang Hui — the daughter of his former wife, Madam Xiu Yanhong — at a flat in Marsiling Drive on Oct 20 last year. Mr Ong and the China-born Mdm Xiu, 39, had ended their five-year marriage earlier that month.

During his four-hour cross-examination by prosecutor Amarjit Singh, Mr Ong said Mdm Xiu had taken their four-year-old son, Cong He, to her Tanjong Katong shop on that fateful day.

He had missed an earlier appointment to see Cong He at the Marsiling flat and was angry with Madam Xiu “as I had overslept that day, so she could have called me to find out where I was”.

Mr Ong called her to ask her why she did not allow him to see their son and the two quarrelled. Frustrated, he cycled to Block 24 Marsiling Drive to meet his stepdaughter. But the two got into a heated argument after he found out about the beatings his son had been given.

Mr Ong also hated Mdm Xiu’s job as a masseuse in various massage parlours between 2003 and 2005 and suspected her of having affairs.

Mr Ong said his stepdaughter became annoyed and blamed the adults for “always disturbing her after their quarrels”.

Mr Ong claimed he became alarmed when his stepdaughter raised her voice and appeared to reach for a knife near her computer.

Mr Ong said a struggle ensued and he pressed his hands on his stepdaughter’s neck and head and asked her why she and her mother were treating him so badly, especially after he had helped them secure Singapore citizenship.

“It was only when the ambulance arrived that I realised I had killed an innocent child,” he said softly. “Before that, my stepdaughter was motionless and that was when I called my ex-wife to say she had forced me to kill her daughter.”

However, he maintained that he did not know that the teenager had died and thought “she had only passed out”.

The trial, scheduled to run for eight days, continues today. Mr Ong faces the death penalty if found guilty. - TODAY/ar