by Elena Chong
A RESTAURANT manager smothered his two young children, torched
his flat and rolled down from a 12th-floor parapet at his block in
Ang Mo Kio a week after his wife had asked for a divorce, a
coroner's court heard on Wednesday.
Ng Chee Kiang, 39, had written a letter to his family members
expressing his depressed feelings over his wife's contributions to
the family and her request for a divorce on Nov 1, 2009. He
mentioned that he was not willing to let his children, Xavier,
five, and Cheryl, three, be 'seconded to another family'', and that
he would take them with him.
The bodies of the children were found side by side on the bed in
the master bedroom of the family's four-room flat at Block 533 Ang
Mo Kio Avenue 10 by civil defence officers on Nov 7, 2009.
Firefighters had earlier broken the padlock and put out the fire
in the living room.
Ng then went to the highest floor and lay on the 12th-floor
parapet ledge. He later rolled down the ledge and died in hospital
at 12.46am the next day.
At a joint inquiry into their deaths, State Coroner Victor Yeo
said in his findings that Ng had been depressed about his failing
marriage and his wife's request for a divorce. He found that Xavier
and Cheryl died after their father had smothered them with a
pillow, and that Ng had taken his own life.