On this date, 13 December 2002,
Anthony Ler who hired a boy to murder his wife was executed by hanging in
Changi Prison, Singapore.
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Anthony Ler Wee Teang (centre) being led out
of the courthouse at around 4:30 pm on 20 November 2001. (PHOTO SOURCE: http://news.asiaone.com/news/crime/devil-smile?page=0%2C0)
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://news.asiaone.com/news/crime/devil-smile?page=0%2C0
Devil with a smile
Saturday, Oct 05, 2013
When
he tripped over his own ankle cuffs or first took the stand to give evidence,
he smiled. When faced with press photographers and eager crowds who queued up
at the High Court hoping to catch a glimpse of him, he smiled.
Embroiled
in one of the most sensational murder cases that gripped Singapore and
attracted wide publicity, he gained overnight infamy and seemed to relish in
his newfound notoriety.
His
smile was his trademark, a secret weapon, one that hid the 35-year-old graphic
designer's devious intentions and was used to charm people in his life into
doing his bidding.
But
eventually, Lady Luck stopped smiling at Anthony Ler.
In
April 2001, Ler approached four youths and dangled a reward of $100,000 to kill
Madam Annie Leong, a 30-year-old insurance agent. The couple were in the midst
of divorce proceedings. Only the youngest boy, a 15-year-old whom Ler had known
for five years, took up the offer.
A
master manipulator who orchestrated the plot with calm precision, Ler played on
the teen's emotions to do his dirty work. He coached his juvenile accomplice on
how to execute the hit cleanly, taunted and belittled him when he tried to back
out, and finally forced him to go through with it by threatening to kill him.
When Madam Leong sepaseparated from Ler in 1999, he was deep in debt after
failed business ventures and had been out of a job for two months.
He
had also lost his meagre savings on horse-racing bets.
He
stood to gain sole possession of their $480,000 Pasir Ris matrimonial flat and
custody of their four-year-old daughter from her death.
INTERNET
SOURCE: http://news.asiaone.com/print/news/crime/devil-smile
Pretext
On
May 14, 2001, Ler lured Madam Leong out of her parents' Hougang flat where she
lived with their daughter on the pretext of signing documents concerning the
sale of their home.
The
waiting boy ambushed her outside the lift and fatally stabbed her with a knife
Ler had given him.
Throughout
the trial, Ler refused to confess to the murder.
He
claimed he spoke of the killing to the boy as a joke and a "game of
bluff" and accused the latter of framing him.
But
in passing the guilty verdict, Judicial Commissioner Tay Yong Kwang said:
"Killing his wife was not something foreign to Anthony Ler's mind. He was
the one constantly bringing up the morbid topic to various persons on diverse
occasions. Nobody planted the idea in his mind. He was the one and only author
of his constant refrain...
"It
was a serious death match on the chess board of reality where the young men
were to be his pawns and he, as 'king', would direct the demise of his
'queen'."
To
this, Ler cracked a sad smile, but a smile nevertheless.
Ler
was hanged in December 2002. The boy was spared the death penalty because he
was underage and is being detained in jail indefinitely at the President's
pleasure.
The
New Paper was the only media Ler had opened up to, days before his arrest at
Madam Leong's wake.
Ever
the showman, he played the part of a mournful husband, shedding well-rehearsed
crocodile tears for the cameras and expressing shock over the tragic loss of
his wife.
Ironically,
it was the torn front page of the April 23, 2001 copy of TNP - found near the
crime scene - that helped seal Ler's fate.
It
was allegedly used to wrap the murder weapon, and came from a copy of the same
newspaper at Ler's home with the front page missing.
Smile
Ler's
lawyer, Mr Subhas Anandan, described him as one of the most composed clients
he's had to defend in his almost 40-plus-year career.
Mr
Anandan wrote in his 2008 memoir The Best I Could: "That smile could be a
sneer, it could be a smile of confidence, or it could be one that belies some
deep fear.
"For
some reason, I have never related his smile to one of happiness.
Somehow
I felt it was his security blanket."
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