A man who claimed his offer of S$100,000 to a group...

A man who claimed his offer of S$100,000 to a group of four youths to kill his estranged wife was a joke was sentenced to hang for abetting her murder.
A 15-year-old student who was charged with the murder was also found guilty by the High Court but escaped the death penalty due to his age. The boy, whose name cannot be released, would be detained indefinitely unless he gets a Presidential release.
Anthony Ler, 34, was found guilty of instigating the teenager to fatally stab his wife, insurance agent Annie Leong, 30, on May 14, 2001 outside her flat in Hougang Avenue after luring her out on the pretext of signing some documents relating to the sale of their matrimonial home.
During the trial, the court heard that Ler, a former Web-designer, had met up with the four youths at a MacDonald's restaurant and offered them S$100,000, in instalments, to kill his wife.
One of them testified that Ler later used a knife to slash a bolster to show how his wife could be killed. Ler had planned to make it look like a robbery.
Local newspapers showed Ler attending his wife's funeral. The couple, who separated three years ago, had a four-year-old daughter.
Prosecutors slammed Ler's defence that the idea of killing his wife for S$100,000 was a joke, saying it was a "complete sham" and totally unbelieveable. Instead, Ler had masterminded his wife's death to make money from the sale of their S$480,000 maisonette and to gain custody of their daughter, said the prosecution.
The boy's lawyer had submitted that Ler was a manipulative m an who had taken advantage of a "simple-minded" 15-year-old and brainwashed him to kill.
The boy was deeply remorseful and was still coping with nightmares over the killing, said his lawyer after the verdict. The boy's family can petition for clemency after several years.