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SINGAPORE – A gag order wrongly imposed in June by a magistrate in the case of a man who killed his two-year-old daughter, a year after their identities were published in the media, was overturned by the High Court on Monday. (Nov. 16).
The prosecution, asking for the error to be corrected, said there was a public interest in identifying the offender, Johnboy John Teo.
On the contrary, there was no public interest in suppressing the identity of the victim, Ashley Clare Teo, who is dead.
“The public has a continuing and unsatisfied interest in learning the outcome of this case,” Assistant Prosecutors Kumaresan Gohulabalan and Andre Chong said in written communications.
Teo, through his attorney, Mr. John Tan, told the court that he had no objections.
The 36-year-old former IT systems specialist is currently serving a six-year jail sentence after he pleaded guilty on July 29 to a reduced count of wrongful death.
Teo, who suffered from major depressive disorder, had suffocated Ashley on June 16 of last year to take her with him after he tried unsuccessfully to end his own life by cutting and stabbing her neck.
Teo was going through divorce proceedings from his wife, Mrs. Eileen Cheok. Ms. Cheok filed for divorce in November 2018 and moved in with Ashley from the marriage flat in Sengkang in January last year.
On June 12 of last year a provisional sentence was issued to dissolve the marriage.
The court heard that Teo was granted access to the child every other weekend, from 9 a.m. on Saturdays to 9 p.m. on Sundays. During that time, the girl would spend the night with him on the floor.
On June 15 of last year, a Saturday, both parents took the girl to a parent-teacher meeting at their preschool.
When Ms. Cheok was about to leave, the girl began to cry for her mother. Seeing this, Tim felt that he had no place in Ashley’s heart.
Later, Tim saw a man waiting next to a Mercedes-Benz and believed that the man was his ex-wife’s boyfriend.
Over the weekend, Teo and Ashley went out together.
After Sunday night’s dinner, Ashley fell asleep on the floor while Tim prepared to deliver her to her mother.
As he watched the girl, Tim repeated the events of the previous day in his mind.
He thought about his ex-wife and how he had found a new boyfriend despite the fact that the divorce was not final, and he wondered why he couldn’t have custody of Ashley.
She was also concerned about losing her kinship with Ashley after the girl was introduced to her mother’s boyfriend.
Feeling stressed, Tim walked into the kitchen, grabbed a kitchen knife and paring knife, and returned to the master bedroom.
Sitting next to his daughter, he stabbed and cut her neck with the knives, then decided to kill her, as he did not want to lose her to death.
He pressed both hands to her mouth and nose, and when she woke up and struggled, he pressed a pillow to her face.
After she was left lifeless, he stabbed her neck again before losing consciousness.
Teo and Ashley were found around 11:30 pm after Ms. Cheok called the police when Teo did not answer the phone. Nor could he enter the apartment because the lock had been changed.
When Teo was charged with murder on June 18 last year, the media published his and Ashley’s identities.
The charge was modified to wrongful death on June 10 of this year.
When the case was brought up in state court on June 15, a prosecutor requested a gag order on the names of Teo and Ashley, despite no instructions from the Attorney General’s Office or the police to do so.
No reason was given for the gag order.
On Monday, the prosecution said the granting of the gag order was “palpably incorrect” as there were no compensatory considerations, such as protecting child victims or victims of sexual crimes, that would justify a violation of the principle of open justice.
Open justice is a legal principle that means, among other things, that the accused is publicly tried and the complaint of ongoing processes is allowed.
In this case, the victim would not have suffered further damages due to the disclosure of his identity.
“Both retribution and deterrence can only have their full weight if (Teo) is identified and, therefore, publicly held responsible for the crime he has committed. Justice must be seen to be done,” said the prosecution.
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