On 22 November 1990, 20-year-old National Serviceman Lee Teck Sang (李德生 Lǐ Déshēng), who deserted from his army and hid himself at the campus of Singapore Polytechnic (where Lee was an alumnus of the institution) for 17 days, used a knife to murder a 45-year-old lecturer during a robbery. The victim, Tan Chin Liong (陈振隆 Chén Zhènlóng), died as a result of being stabbed thrice. Although Lee claimed that he only meant to rob and the stabbing was meant to incapacitate Tan, the High Court rejected Lee's defence and found Lee guilty of murdering Tan, and sentenced him to death. Lee's appeal was dismissed and he was hanged on 29 July 1994.
Murder
On the morning of 22 November 1990, at 7.15am, a lecturer discovered one of his senior colleagues lying dead on the seventh floor corridor outside his office at the Dover Road campus of Singapore Polytechnic.
The victim was identified as 45-year-old Tan Chin Liong, a lecturer from the Electronics and Communication Engineering department of the polytechnic. He sustained a total of three stab wounds, with one on his abdomen and two on his chest. Preliminary investigations by the Singapore Police Force also determined that the possible motive behind Tan's death was robbery and Tan was possibly attacked at around 5am to 7am, at most a couple of hours before the body was discovered. The police also noticed a blood trail coming from the victim's body, and followed the bloodstains to the female toilet on the sixth floor. Inside, they arrested a man who was hiding inside one of the cubicles. The young bespectacled man was wearing only a pair of white shorts, and two bags were seized from the toilet; one of them contained a bloodstained shirt and a knife. The suspect was also identified as a former student of the polytechnic, having graduated early in 1990, and he was also a deserter of National Service.
The brutal killing of Tan brought shock to his brother and many people present at the campus, and it disrupted the lessons of many students at the polytechnic. Reportedly, they showed outrage at the suspect's brutal conduct and sadness for Tan, who was known to be a good teacher and kind-hearted person. The school staff of the polytechnic also stated that they would introduce the necessary measures to tighten the security on the campus to prevent similar incidents from happening.
The bespectacled suspect, 20-year-old Lee Teck Sang, was charged with murder on 23 November 1990, a day after his arrest.
Lee's case was later transferred to the High Court in June 1991, with a trial pending to be scheduled to take place on a later date.
Background
Tan Chin Liong was a Malaysian who came from Johor Bahru. He was born in a family of ten brothers and sisters. He finished his secondary school education in Malaysia before furthering his studies at England, obtaining a master's degree in engineering. Tan worked at Singapore Polytechnic as a lecturer for more than ten years before his murder. According to his students, Tan was a well-mannered, approachable and unassuming person who treated his students well and helped them in their school work. Many of his pupils were reportedly shocked and saddened to hear about his death. Tan was also single and did not have a girlfriend due to him spending most of his time on research and work, and he was extremely thrifty.
As for the suspect Lee Teck Sang, who was born in Singapore in 1970, he used to study at Qi Hua Primary School and also completed his secondary school education at Yuan Ching Secondary, where he graduated with a GCE O-level certificate. Lee enrolled in Singapore Polytechnic, where he studied before he graduated with a diploma on electronics and communication in early 1990, a few months before he allegedly killed Tan. Lee, who lived in Boon Lay, was the seventh child out of eight children, and he had two older brothers, four older sisters and one younger brother. His father died as of 1994 and his mother (aged 50 in 1990) worked as a cleaner. Lee was said to have a good student-teacher relationship with Tan, who often showed concern for his welfare and school work.
Trial of Lee Teck Sang
Two years after Tan Chin Liong was murdered, his killer Lee Teck Sang was officially brought to trial at the High Court on 5 October 1992. Lee was represented by Ram Goswami, and the prosecution led by Han Cher Kwang, and the trial was presided by veteran judge T S Sinnathuray, who was best known for sentencing Adrian Lim and his two accomplices to the gallows for the ritual killings of two children at Toa Payoh.