10.5 years' jail for ‘deity’ who cheated cult followers of over S$7m, ordered them to eat faeces as punishment

SINGAPORE — Over the course of about eight years, a woman who proclaimed herself to be a deity had close to 30 followers who turned to her because they were suffering from serious medical conditions or had relatives who were suffering, and were "desperate for healing". 

Preying on their vulnerable state, she cheated them of more than S$7 million and made them take another S$6.6 million in loans. 

She would mete out punishments for followers who did not listen to her orders.

One devotee had her teeth pulled out, suffered a permanent eye injury and was forced to jump from the second floor of a building. Others had to eat human faeces.

On Wednesday (June 19), Woo Mei Hoe, a 54-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced to 10.5 years' jail.

She had pleaded guilty in May to two charges each of voluntarily causing grievous hurt and cheating, and one charge of instigating a person to cause hurt with a dangerous weapon. Another 45 charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

In her brief remarks when meting out the sentence, District Judge Ong Chin Rhu noted the breach of trust between Woo and her followers and the extent of financial and physical harm the victims suffered.

As for the cheating offences, the judge said that Woo committed them in a “calculated and cruel” manner and over a sustained period.

The judge took into consideration Woo’s guilty plea and her paranoid schizophrenia that a doctor assessed had a contributory link to the offences of hurting others, but not for cheating.

Paranoid schizophrenia is a form of psychosis. People who suffer from it need medication and therapy to manage the symptoms, which can include having persistent and unusual beliefs and thoughts, and being suspicious of people and a general fear of other people's intentions.

FOLLOWERS PAID MILLIONS, BOUGHT HOUSES FOR ‘WORSHIP'

The court previously heard that Woo led a group of people who believed in Sri Sakthi Narayani Amma — a spiritual leader in India — and they met up frequently for ritual sessions, prayers and spiritual teachings that would last until the wee hours of the morning.

In court documents prepared by Deputy Public Prosecutors Timotheus Koh and Grace Chua, they said: “During the sessions, the accused told her followers that she was a deity with the ability to communicate with gods and spirits and dictated that they refer to her as ‘lord’.” 

Woo taught her followers that they could clear their “bad karma” and increase their “good karma” by making payments to Amma’s society in India, via payments made through her. However, she then kept the money for her own use.

Aside from getting her followers to make monetary payments ranging from thousands to millions of dollars, she ordered her followers to buy condominiums and cars as a purported “form of worship”, which she used for her own enjoyment.

Some of the devotees depleted their savings and pawned their valuables. Others sold their houses and took up extensive loans from banks, among others.

In all, Woo cheated a total of over S$13.61 million from them — comprising about S$7 million from her followers and another S$6.61 million in loans they took from financial institutions.

Between 2013 and 2015, Woo cheated one follower of S$3.5 million, purportedly for the expansion of a school compound in a village in India.

She also cheated the same victim of another S$2.5 million for a fictitious temple building project. As the victim was suffering from a serious medical condition and had extensive medical bills of her own, payments were made in instalments to Woo of S$100,000 a month.

ORDERED TO EAT FAECES, JUMP DOWN FROM BUILDING

Woo also severely punished her followers with “violent and degrading” punishments from time to time if they displeased her, the prosecution said.

“This included hitting her followers with various implements such as paintbrushes and canes, stabbing them with scissors, using pliers to pull out their teeth, forcing them to consume human faeces and making them jump off from a height.” 

She would either carry out the punishments personally or ask other followers to inflict them.

Around 10 followers resided with Woo to serve her full-time. 

One victim, who resided with Woo, was hit repeatedly on the head and face with a bundle of five canes by Woo when she was unhappy with the victim.

The victim, who was in severe pain and had blurry vision, was told by Woo to use some “holy water” to wash her eye and stare directly into the sun to treat the pain.

Her optic nerve was found to be damaged and she will require lifelong medical care for her injured eye, which suffers from weak vision.

This same victim also had her teeth pulled out with pliers by another follower under the Woo's order. Woo was unhappy that the victim went to visit her mother without informing her. 

This was not the first time that the victim had her teeth pulled out as punishment, the prosecution said.

The victim was also forced to jump down from the second floor of a building, leading her to suffer fractures on her feet.

A doctor at the Institute of Mental Health assessed Woo in 2020 and found her to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of her offences, with a “contributory link” between her condition and the offences where she caused hurt to others.

However, he found no contributory link between her mental state and her cheating offences, the prosecution added.

'GRATUITOUSLY' INFLICTED INJURIES

The prosecution sought a jail term of between nine and 12 years, noting how Woo's actions had "completely shattered" the lives of her followers and caused permanent physical disability to some of them.

It pointed to her abuse of the "exceptional trust" that her followers had placed on her as an aggravating factor. 

Defence counsel Caryn Lee pleaded for a lighter sentence of 69 months' jail for her client.

She reiterated that her client suffers from mental illness.

Woo had made partial financial restitution of S$675,000 to the victims as well.  

District Judge Ong took into account some of the aggravating factors such as the extent of the injuries the victims suffered and that Woo had inflicted them "gratuitously as a form of punishment".

If not for the Woo's mental illness, "the facts of the case would have called for substantially higher uplifts to the starting sentences for each charge", she added.

For the cheating offences, the judge outlined factors such as Woo's "greed" and the sustained duration of the deception among the aggravating factors.

For each count of cheating, Woo could have been jailed up to 10 years or fined, or both.

A person convicted of voluntarily causing grievous hurt can be jailed up to 10 years and be liable to a fine or caning. However, Woo cannot be caned by law since she is a woman.