Cold Blooded Murders (8 page)

Mr Coomaraswamy: Fully conscious of any
possible repercussions that may arise by my standing up so frequently—

His Lordship: I am delighted to see the
enthusiasm with which you are conducting the defence, Mr Coomaraswamy.

Mr Coomaraswamy: I mean, I should be
regarded as an irritating counsel by you—

His Lordship: You may by your
colleagues, but certainly not by myself and my fellow brother judges.

Mr Coomaraswamy went on to complain about
the legal technicalities concerning the notice of this evidence.

Henderson continued with his evidence of the
second day’s diving, on 3 September 1963. He said he made two dives wearing
full equipment, about 11:00
am
.

Crown Counsel: On your first dive did
you find anything?

Henderson: No.

Crown Counsel: What was the depth you
reached on the first dive?

Henderson: Forty-five feet.

Crown Counsel: That was at sea bottom?

Henderson: Yes.

Crown Counsel: For how long were you
under?

Henderson: Fifty-five minutes.

Crown Counsel: You came up to change
your tank?

Henderson: Yes, I did.

Crown Counsel: Then you went down
again?

Henderson: Yes.

Crown Counsel: What depth did you reach
this time?

Henderson: Forty-five feet.

Crown Counsel: Did you find anything?

Henderson: I found a green-coloured
flipper.

Crown Counsel: I see. Where?

Henderson: On the sea-bed.

His Lordship: How did you find it? How
was it on the sea-bed?

Henderson: It was lying on the sea-bed
at that particular point— or rather rough rocks, or what-have-you. It was lying
beside those rocks.

His lordship: Was it in any way covered
or was it just quite open to view?

Henderson: Quite open to view.

His Lordship: Not covered with sand or
mud?

Henderson: There was a little mud over
it, but not very much.

His Lordship: Not very much. It was
quite plain to the eye was it?

Henderson: Yes.

Crown Counsel: You handed it
subsequently to the police?

Henderson: Yes.

Crown Counsel: Can you describe the
condition of the flipper as you found it that day?

Henderson: The heel-strap was severed.
The rubber was in good condition. There were no barnacles or growth of any type
or other.

Crown Counsel: That means to show that
it had been lying there for a long time?

Henderson: Yes.

Crown Counsel: Did you find any
current?

Henderson replied that there was a current,
and that visibility was about 12 feet at the bottom on the seabed. There was
also an undertow that carried him downwards. He stemmed it with considerable
effort but at one point he was carried away about 150 yards.

Later the witness emphasized that a novice
diver should never dive alone.

Crown Counsel: Is this what the
Americans call the Buddy System?

His Lordship: Let us try and still
carry on in the English language, with due respect to any American.

Crown Counsel: You must always dive
with another person with you?

Henderson: Yes.

Crown Counsel: Would you be able to
tell this Court what would be a scuba-diver’s greatest enemy under water?

Henderson: Panic.

Crown Counsel: What would happen to a
diver who suddenly loses his, one of his, flippers while he is scuba-diving?

Henderson: His equilibrium would be
upset, his mobility would be impaired, and this may well lead to panic in the
case of an inexperienced diver.

Crown Counsel: Have you yourself
experienced losing a flipper while scuba-diving?

Henderson: I have.

Crown Counsel: Can you tell this Court
what happened to you?

Henderson: My flipper came off. They
were slightly too big for me. One came off, and like I said, equilibrium was
upset, mobility was impaired, so I dropped my weight belt and surfaced.

Cross-examined by defence counsel, Henderson
said that while there were no barnacles on the flipper when he found it, there
were certain types of growth.

Mr Coomaraswamy: Like what?

Henderson: I do not know the name.

Mr coomaraswamy: How long would the
thing have to be under water before barnacles grow?

Henderson: I would say round about two
to three weeks.

Mr Coomaraswamy: Is it not correct that
when you found the flipper it was in fact wedged in rocks?

Henderson: It was not wedged or
surrounded by rocks.

Mr Coomaraswamy: What was the nature of
the rocks at the place where you found this flipper? Were they high or
undulating in between?

Henderson: High, very different forms.

Having agreed roughly on the map the
place where the flipper was found, defence counsel asked, “Would a thing like a
flipper sink to the bottom?”

Henderson: This type would.

Mr Coomaraswamy: You spoke of undertow.

Henderson: I did.

Mr Coomaraswamy: Would there be
currents nearest the bed of the sea?

Henderson: Yes.

Mr Coomaraswamy: Would undertows form?

Henderson: Yes, at various times.

Mr Coomaraswamy: Would that undertow
down move a flipper?

Henderson: Not over a rough terrain.

Later, Henderson was asked about fitting on
a flipper. He was asked if it were correct to say that the modern tendency is
to put the feet first and then the heel. He agreed.

Mr Coomaraswamy: In other words,
shoe-fitting?

Henderson: Yes.

Mr Coomaraswamy: What is the normal
way?

Henderson: First the foot, the heel and
then stretch over the back of the heel.

Mr Coomaraswamy: With what?

Henderson: With the finger.

Mr Coomaraswamy: Would you agree any
other way would be difficult?

Henderson: I cannot see any other way
of doing it.

Mr Coomaraswamy: More or less run your
finger round the heel from the side?

Henderson: Just below the back.

Defence counsel concluded his
cross-examination by putting it to him that he did not find the flipper where
he said he did. “I am telling the truth,” said Henderson.

Phang Sin Eng, a government chemist gave
evidence that he received the green flipper from Inspector Richard Lui on 25
September 1963. He examined it under a microscope and found that the strap had
two cuts. The cuts had been made, he said, by a knife, a razor or a pair of
scissors.

Crown Counsel: Is it possible for these
cuts to be the result of the strap being cut by coral?

Phang Sin Eng: No, I think it is most
unlikely.

Crown Counsel: Why do you say that?

Phang Sin Eng: For the following
reasons. First of all the position of the cuts: one cut is from the top of the
strap and the other is from the bottom of the strap. And under microscopic
examination there was striation marking in both cases. The cut from the top of
the strap has two directions: one direction is vertically down and then
continues in another direction at a slight angle indicating two separate and
independent actions in producing the cut from the top, one vertically down and
one at an angle.

Cross-examined by defence counsel, the
witness was asked, “If one were to pull the strap up with one’s fingers and put
it over the arm like that (demonstrating) would that pressure be enough to
break it?” “I don’t know,” said Phang Sin Eng.

***

Inspector Evan Yeo stepped into the
witness-box on the afternoon of the seventh day of the trial and was questioned
about a 61-page statement he took from Sunny Ang on 30 August 1963, three days
after Jenny’s disappearance.

William Ang was called for cross-examination
by the defence counsel during the morning and was rebuked by the judge for
being impertinent. Crown counsel, re-examining, had asked him if Sunny Ang knew
anything about cars.

Crown Counsel: Does he tinker with
cars? Does he open up the bonnet and have a look at the car, generally
tinkering with the car as a lot of people do?

William Ang: He seldom does that.

Crown Counsel: Does he know anything
about cars?

William Ang: I can’t read his mind.

His Lordship: Don’t be impertinent.

William Ang: I don’t understand him.

His Lordship: It is a perfectly simple
question. Try.

William Ang: I suppose he knows a
little.

The prosecution next called Maxime Bertrand,
director of a firm which dealt in scuba-diving equipment, and an experienced
scuba-diver with nine years’ experience in Singapore and Malayan waters. He
gave evidence about the tests he had made at the request of the police in the
Straits of Pulau Dua, and tests of home-made washers on an air-tank specified
by the police. He said there was not a perceptible leak in his tests with his
home-made washers. He told Mr Seow that if a novice should suddenly lose a
flipper, and if there was a strong under-current the novice would surely feel
alarmed. The situation would be very serious.

Inspector Evan Yeo, of the Special Investigation
Section of the CID, said he interviewed Sunny Ang in the evening of 30 August
1963. Ang told him that when Jenny went down the second time she was wearing a
pair of flippers belonging to a friend of his younger brother.

Crown Counsel: Did you ask Ang why he
did not dive to see if he could find Jenny when she failed to surface?

Inspector Yeo: I did.

Crown Counsel: And did he give you any
reply?

Inspector Yeo: The answers he gave me
are as follows. Firstly, his equipment was not serviceable. Secondly, he could
not hold his breath for long and therefore he could not dive in those rather
deep waters. Thirdly, he saw no point in diving when he failed to see Jenny’s
air bubbles around the boat; and visibility in that depth was only a few feet.
And fourthly that Jenny might have been attacked by sharks, according to him,
and his instinct for self-preservation prevented him from going down.

The inspector said that Sunny Ang told him
that he had paid about $500 on Jenny’s premiums, money borrowed from his
father. The inspector said that, according to Ang, the extension of the policy
on the day of Jenny’s disappearance was necessary as he and Jenny had intended
to catch the mail train to Seremban, to drive back the car he had borrowed from
Sidney Kong of Singapore.

Cross-examined by Mr Coomaraswamy, Inspector
Yeo agreed that Jenny, according to Ang, had given Ang $600 later to settle the
$500 loan taken by Ang from his father, and to pay other premiums on her
insurance. The inspector told counsel that Deputy Superintendent Ong Kim Boon
did most of the interrogation of Ang, though he was present.

Deputy Superintendent Ong, in charge of the
SIS of the CID, said that, questioned several times in August and September,
1963, Ang told him that he was very friendly with Jenny and had intended to
marry her. Ang told him about the insurance policies.

Crown Counsel: Did he tell you the
reason why his mother should be the beneficiary?

Deputy-Supt Ong: Yes, because he was
bankrupt. He therefore suggested his mother instead.

Crown Counsel: Did Ang tell you whether
his mother knew that she had been named in the Great Eastern Life Assurance
policies as Jenny’s beneficiary?

Deputy-Supt Ong: Yes, he told me that
the mother was aware of it only after Jenny’s disappearance, after the 27
August.

Crown Counsel: Did he tell you why
Jenny should make a will leaving everything to Madam Yeo Bee Neo, Sunny Ang’s
mother?

Deputy-Supt Ong: Because, he said,
Jenny disliked every member of her own family. The mother was the beneficiary
in name only.

His Lordship: The real beneficiary—did
he tell you who the real beneficiary was?

Deputy-Supt Ong: I remember the accused
said that everything eventually would go to him.

Crown Counsel: To him?

Deputy-Supt Ong: Yes, because without
him, the mother would never have been named the beneficiary.