35 years’ prison for man who beheaded father, chopped up body parts
Published on: Tuesday, January 09, 2024
By:
FMT, V Anbalagan
You Poh Khoon was given a 35-year jail term following an amendment to the law which gives judges discretion to substitute the death penalty with an imprisonment term. (Bernama pic)
PUTRAJAYA: A jobless man who beheaded his bedridden, cancer-stricken father nearly six years ago was sentenced to 35 years in jail today after he withdrew his final appeal against conviction for murder.
Chief Judge of Malaya Zabidin Diah, who led a three-member bench, said there was merit in You Poh Khoon’s appeal against the sentence.
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“He should be given the chance to serve the jail term. The death sentence imposed by the lower courts is set aside,” said Zabidin, who sat with Justices Mary Lim and Abu Bakar Jais.
The bench ordered the 58-year-old’s jail term to begin on Oct 9, 2018, the day he was arrested.
He was also exempted from the minimum 10 strokes of the rotan due to his age.
Under the law, judges are now given the discretion to impose a jail term of up to 40 years in murder cases in lieu of the death penalty.
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Last year, the Court of Appeal affirmed the death sentence meted out on Poh Khoon by the High Court in 2022.
Poh Khoon murdered his father, You Su Kim, 74, between 3pm on Oct 8, 2018 and 10.30pm the next day, at their home in Kanthan Baru, Chemor, near Ipoh, in Perak.
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At the outset of today’s proceedings, defence lawyer Amir Faliq Jamil said Poh Khoon was withdrawing the appeal against conviction. He urged the court to impose the custodial sentence due following the change in law.
He said Poh Khoon was the only sibling among four children who took care of their father, who became bedridden after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer three months earlier.
Something happened between the father and son that caused Poh Khoon to lose control and led to the commission of the crime, he said.
Amir, who was assisted by Siti Nor Syahidah Ismail and Afina Hakim, said Poh Khoon’s family members were also hopeful that he would be spared the death sentence.
Deputy public prosecutor How May Ling said the prosecution supported the variation of the sentence sought and called for a jail term of between 35 and 40 years.
“Forensic evidence revealed there were three slash wounds to the neck that caused the death of the deceased.
“There were also 15 other injuries, and the deceased’s hands and leg were dismembered,” she said.
According to the facts of the case, Poh Khoon killed his father by severing his head and chopping up his body after the deceased scolded him for consuming drugs at home.
The victim’s head was buried in the backyard while the body parts were dumped in a 1.5m-deep sewage hole.
Poh Khoon was placed under observation at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta, Tanjung Rambutan, in Perak, for 22 days. Prosecution witness Dr Ian Lloyd Anthony testified during trial that Poh Khoon was of sound mind at the time of the offence.
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