Case Summaries: Exception 5 to s.

300
Exception unsuccessfully pleaded
Leong Siew Chor v PP [2006] SGCA 38
Facts
 Accused was convicted of murdering a production worker from his company
 2 days prior to the death, Accused had stolen deceased’s ATM card and
successfully withdrew money from her bank account. Deceased discovered the
missing ATM Card, lodged a police report and told the Accused about it. The
Accused then invited the deceased to his house and it was then that he strangled
her with a towel
 At trial, the Accused claimed that the deceased’s death was pursuant to a suicide
pact that she had proposed when they were working out their relationship issues
on that fateful day, and had offered to die first
Issue
 Whether Exception 5 to s.300 could be successfully argued, i.e. that the
deceased had suffered death or taken the risk of death with her own consent
Held
 The case depended on whether the Accused could persuade the judge on a
balance of probabilities that the deceased and him had made a suicide pact.
Accused bore the burden of convincing the court that killing the deceased to
prevent discovery of theft of her money was not a motive for the crime
 Consent envisaged under Exception 5 had to be “unequivocal and unconditional”.
There had to be the “clearest indication” that such consent had been given (High
Court decision at [95])
 Accused’s unable to plead Exception 5 because
o No indication that the deceased was depressed enough to want to kill
herself
o The way that the suicide pact was made was made seemed most unlikely
– no reconsideration, no discussion as to when they should do it, no
discussion about getting their affairs in order, especially for Accused who
claimed to love his family so dearly
Exception successfully pleaded (no known Singapore cases)
In re: Kanaga Kosvan Alias Konakachala (1931) 60 MLJ 616
Facts
 Accused was alleged to have murdered a woman on a road between two villages
 Accused claimed that on the fateful day, the deceased had taken the knife out of
his waist, put it into his hand and asked him to cut and throw her away and be of,
as she “could not be here any longer” on the account that other people were
“scandalising” her for being with him. Accused refused to do so, but the deceased
urged him to do so and seized the dhoti he was wearing. Accused then cut her
neck with the knife
 At trial, the trial judge could not bring himself to believe that the deceased was
consenting party to the murder, and convicted the Accused of murder
Issue
 Whether Exception 5 can be successfully pleaded
Held
 Deceased was more than 18 years of age and was therefore able to consent to
her killing
 The deceased had been wandering about from place to place trying to find a
house in which to live, but unsuccessfully. It is not impossible that under these
circumstances of feeling desperate and depressed, the deceased asked the
accused to kill her.
 There was no real motive proved by the prosecution for the accused deliberately
killing her of his own free will. He should therefore be given the benefit of the
doubt that he killed the deceased at her request.