Abuse, death of four-year-old girl: Mum jailed 19 years, ex-boyfriend jailed 30 years

The mother of four-year-old Megan Khung, who was abused and humiliated for more than a year before she died in 2020, was sentenced to 19 years' jail on April 3.

- Selina Lum

Foo Li Ping, 29, had pleaded guilty on Feb 28 to one count of child abuse, one count of allowing the death of a child, and one count of intentional disposal of a corpse to impede investigations.

Another count of child abuse was considered in sentencing. Foo's then boyfriend, Wong Shi Xiang, 38, was sentenced to 30 years' jail and 17 strokes of the cane. He had pleaded guilty to one count of culpable homicide for killing Megan, one count of intentional disposal of a corpse, one count of drug trafficking, and one count of drug consumption.

Another 11 charges, mostly for drug-related offences, were considered in sentencing. Foo and Wong had caned and slapped Megan, deprived the girl of food and clothes, and made her sleep at the balcony of their rented condominium unit in Paya Lebar. Megan was also forced to wear soiled diapers over her head, forced to eat food from the dustbin, and forced to eat her mother's mucus — acts that were captured on video.

The physical and emotional abuse culminated in her death at the age of four, after Wong punched her in the stomach on Feb 21, 2020. The couple burned Megan's body in a custom-made metal barrel on May 8, 2020, after conducting research and experiments on ways to incinerate a corpse. Megan's ashes were never recovered.

A friend of the couple, Nouvelle Chua Ruoshi, 35, who abused drugs with them at their unit at Suites @ Guillemard, has also been charged in connection with Megan's death. Her case is pending in the State Courts.

Megan's parents were married in 2015, the year she was born. Her father, Mr Khung Wei Nan, 37, is a businessman and content creator known as simonboy. After their relationship broke down, Foo and Megan lived with Foo's mother.

In January 2019, Foo moved in with Wong at the condo unit he was renting.

Megan remained with her grandmother and stayed with the couple on some weekends.