14 years' jail for father who strangled autistic twin sons in Upper Bukit Timah canal
15 Aug 2023 10:43AM
(Updated: 27 Jan 2025 03:31PM)
SINGAPORE — Hoping to relieve his wife of the burden of taking care of their autistic twin sons, Xavier Yap Jung Houn decided to take matters into his own hands by strangling the boys in a covered canal near his home.
Yap, 50, was sentenced to 14 years' jail on Tuesday (Aug 15) after pleading guilty to two charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The court heard that his 11-year-old sons, Ethan and Aston Yap, were suspected to have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and were formally diagnosed with global development delay (GDD) in 2017.
The family was advised to place the twins in a special education school, but their mother Anna Seah had difficulty accepting their condition.
Instead, she enrolled them in a mainstream school when they were still non-verbal.
Yap and Ms Seah are currently undergoing divorce proceedings.
Yap had a good relationship with his sons and would often help prepare their daily necessities and bought them things that they wanted.
However, Yap began to grow concerned when he noticed that Ms Seah was always getting angry with the boys.
This led Yap to begin having suicidal thoughts, and he also purchased an ice-pick for this purpose.
WHAT HAPPENED
Sometime at the start of 2022, Yap began to harbour serious thoughts of killing his sons and committing suicide as he noticed that his wife was depressed and frustrated. She had been feeling this way due to an upcoming suitability assessment that the twins had to undergo in order to remain in the mainstream primary school they were attending. Yap felt that his wife had given up on their sons and thought that killing them could take away his wife's burdens. He also feared that when he and his wife passed on, no one would take care of the boys. Yap decided to carry out his plan at Greenridge Crescent Playground, a quiet location in the Upper Bukit Timah area with a big open field and forest nearby, that was near the family home. On the afternoon of Jan 21, 2022, Yap drove his sons to the playground in his car with the ice-pick he bought earlier. When they arrived, his sons played for around 10 minutes before Yap brought them to the open field where he carried them one by one into a nearby canal. He then led them to the sheltered part of the canal where he pressed a stick hard against Ethan's neck, but it broke. Yap decided to then get Ethan in front of him to strangle him by placing his forearm across his son's neck and pressing down. Although Ethan struggled, he eventually stopped moving and Yap placed him on the ground. Yap then turned to his other son Aston, who had been standing quietly a few metres away. Yap tried to repeat his action with Aston but lacked the strength to do so resulting in the both of them falling down. While Aston lay on the ground, Yap got on top of his son to choke him. As Aston struggled, Yap continued to apply force to the boy's neck until he became motionless. Once the boys were motionless, Yap had their bodies turned over so that their faces were submerged in the canal water to ensure that they were really dead. However, autopsy reports prepared by senior forensic pathologist, Dr George Paul, certified that both boys died by strangulation. After he killed his sons, Yap attempted to kill himself by using the ice-pick to poke himself in the stomach, chest and back but was unable to do so. He then decided to use a tree branch and a fist-sized rock to hit his head in hopes of causing a brain injury, but this attempt was also unsuccessful.LYING TO THE POLICE
After the unsuccessful suicide attempts, Yap came up with the idea to pretend that he had been attacked. He believed that lying to the police about the attack would show he had no remorse and result in a harsher punishment in the form of a death sentence. Yap subsequently made two calls to the police where he claimed that he had been attacked and needed help to find his sons. He headed back to the canal where he moved his sons' bodies so that they no longer had their heads submerged in water. Yap then sat on the ground with his sons' heads on his lap while he waited for the police. After seeing no signs of the police, Yap ran back to the canal area near the playground where he shouted for help, and it was this point when the police arrived. Yap initially informed the police that he was attacked and someone else was responsible for the death of his twins. With this information, the police searched the vicinity of the playground, which included the forested area behind the park, but did not find anything. Yap was sent to the National University Hospital where he was found to have sustained multiple injuries including cuts over his stomach and chest and abrasions over his elbows, right wrist and both knees. Yap eventually admitted to killing his sons and was arrested a day later. After his arrest, Yap was assessed by Dr Christopher Cheok at the Institute of Mental Health where he was found to have suffered from major depressive disorder with symptoms that worsened in the months leading up to the offences.MITIGATION LETTER
In a letter penned by Yap that was read in court by defence counsel Patrick Nai, Yap apologised for the "mayhem and trouble" he caused to everyone and claimed that his disorder was further aggravated after he found out that his wife was cheating on him. "Being overwhelmed by sadness and hopelessness, I had totally lost faith that my two sons will be taken care of in the future, especially when I'm gone," read Mr Nai. Yap claimed that the main reason why he decided to act in the way he did was believing that with him and his two sons gone, their "suffering will be over" and it will also free his wife from her burden. Yap also claimed he had hoped for a death sentence to join his two sons soon, but went on to plead for leniency when he found out, through friends and family, that his wife did not express sadness about the death of their sons. "As a mother, she even threw away her sons' belongings," Mr Nai read. He asked to be given the opportunity to care for his aged mother after serving his jail term and re-contribute to society by volunteering at various special needs organisations.TRAGIC CASE
In delivering his sentence, Justice Vincent Hoong said that this was a tragic case that involved a father of two young sons who had intentionally caused their death with the belief that he would alleviate their mortal suffering. The judge added that while Yap had suffered from a mental disorder, it was blatantly clear that he retained a clear understanding of his actions and their consequences. He added that the victims in this case were also particularly vulnerable as they were not just young children but also boys who suffered from ASD and GDD, and instead of caring, Yap had betrayed their deep trust, choosing to inflict irreparable harm by causing their death. For culpable homicide not amounting to murder, Yap could have been given a life imprisonment or jailed up to 20 years and caned.
Source: TODAY
