Orchard Towers brawl: Tears as woman gets murder charge reduced

SINGAPORE — More than three months after she was charged with murder in relation to the high-profile Orchard Towers brawl in July, Natalie Siow Yu Zhen found out on Friday (Oct 18) that she will no longer face the death penalty.

The 23-year-old — the only woman among seven who on July 4 were charged with the murder of 31-year-old Satheesh Noel Gobidass — had her charge reduced to one of voluntarily causing hurt.

If convicted, Siow faces a maximum sentence of two years in jail and a S$5,000 fine.

It was an unexpected turn of events for Siow, who did not know why she was called back to court on Friday. She burst into tears upon finding out that she no longer faces the gallows shortly before the court session began at 2.30pm.

“Before the judge came out, she was wondering what she was doing in court. She had no idea what was going on,” her lawyer, Mr Amarick Gill of Amarick Gill LLC, told TODAY.

Mr Gill said that it had been two months since he told her that she should more appropriately be charged with voluntarily causing hurt and that he and his assistant, Ms Cheryl Ng of Intelleigen Legal, would make representations for that. They were back in court on Friday as the prosecution acceded to the request, he said.

Her amended charge now states that she had kicked and punched the victim together with Tan Sen Yang, 28, Joel Tan Yun Sheng, 26, and Ang Da Yuan, 26 — the trio still face the murder charge.

Siow was offered bail of S$15,000.

She walked out of the State Court at about 6pm with her father and a family friend.

Her case will be mentioned again on Oct 25.

THE INCIDENT

The Orchard Towers incident that shook the nation unfolded in the early hours of July 2, when a man was found lying motionless in a pool of blood at the entrance of Orchard Towers.

A video footage of the incident later went viral on social media, showing a man collapsing near an escalator in the building after a brawl, prompting onlookers to rush forward to check on him. The victim died in Tan Tock Seng Hospital about an hour later.

The police established the identities of eight suspects — two among them are women — and arrested them within 12 hours.

Of the eight, seven were charged on July 4. Apart from Siow, Tan Sen Yang, Joel Tan Yun Sheng and Ang, the others charged were Tan Hong Sheng, 22; Loo Boon Chong, 25; and Chan Jia Xing, 26.

On July 11, Tan Hong Sheng, Loo and Chan had their murder charges reduced to that of consorting with Tan Sen Yang who is said to have had a foldable “Kerambit” knife at about 5.45am on July 2 at Naughty Girl Club in Orchard Towers. The knife was allegedly used in the attack.

Loo and Chan are currently out on bail, while Tan Hong Sheng, who was originally on bail, has been in custody since Sept 27 after jumping bail on Aug 29 when he failed to attend his hearing in a district court.

Tan Hong Sheng’s mother reported the matter to the police and a warrant of arrest was issued against him. He was arrested, then handed another charge — this time for rioting outside Club Secret at Central Mall in Clarke Quay at about 3.30am on Aug 9.

Video footage of the incident posted online shows a group of at least 20 youths fighting in a car park.