Pulau Senang prison riots

In 1960, an experimental-type offshore penal colony was established on Pulau Senang by the Singapore government, after the proposal was made by former political prisoner and future president Devan Nair. On the island, the secret society members were allowed to roam freely and were put to manual labour, as part of a rehabilitation programme to allow them to rejoin society. The settlement was established as a countermeasure to resolve the issue of prison overcrowding, as attributed to the large number of suspected gang members being arrested and detained without trial per the government's tough crackdown on secret societies in Singapore. The prison-settlement was started on 18 May 1960, when about 50 detainees, sent from Changi Prison, arrived with Irish-born Prisons Superintendent Daniel Stanley Dutton, the appointed chief of the penal settlement; another 20 officers and attendants were appointed to the island. Over the next three years, the number of detainees from the mainland rose to 320 and together they transformed the island into an attractive settlement, and there were bouts of success from the results. By September 1962, about 200 offenders had been deemed sufficiently rehabilitated and suitable to return to society. Dutton was known to be a largely benevolent and lenient leader of the island prison, as he believed that not all humans are born evil and believed that reformation is possible for them through hard work. He also did not allow guards to carry arms as part of the need to build trust between the guards and inmates. However, despite such an outlook, he was also a strict enforcer of discipline and would not tolerate any rule-breaking or defiance of orders from any inmates, and often harshly penalized those detainees who broke the rules. Hence, while he was held in high regard by many detainees and guards, he also earned an unfavourable opinion and dislike from others. Also, the abuse of detainees by some of the prison wardens add to the displeasure the detainees harboured against the authorities who operated the Pulau Senang settlement. ==Prison riot and killings==

On the afternoon of 12 July 1963, after lunchtime, the guards escorted the 320 detainees to their workplace, where they would carry out their work as usual according to their routine. It was at this point, about 70 to 90 detainees, armed with parangs and changkols, began to attack the prison guards, as well as the other detainees who refused to join the riot, which lasted for forty minutes and led to a severe destruction of the settlement on Pulau Senang. During the unrest, 39-year-old Daniel Stanley Dutton escaped to the radio room, where he called for help, calling for the assistance of the Marine Police. However, soon after sending the distress signal, Dutton was attacked by the rioters, who poured petrol on him and set him on fire, and he was subsequently slashed and chopped to death by the rioters, who mutilated his body. Three other prison guards - Arumugam Veerasingham, Chok Kok Hong and Tan Kok Hian - were also killed by the rioters in midst of the uprising. Several other people, including Deputy Superintendent John William Tailford, were grievously hurt but they later survived with timely medical intervention. According to Low Ah Kok, a settlement guard, the hospital and petrol station on Pulau Senang was not spared from the damage inflicted by the rioters. Later, police reinforcements arrived at Pulau Senang, and they all arrested the rioters, who were seen dancing and singing in rejoice at their spoils and destruction of the settlement. Prior to the arrival of the police, one of the rioters Tan Yim Chwee (later known as Accused No. 27; ), whose shirt was stained in Dutton's blood, used it as a flag mast per their celebration of succeeding to kill Dutton. The arrested rioters were all charged with rioting and murder. ==Trial proceedings==

Selection of jury and lawyers of trial On 18 November 1963, after several preliminary hearings, about 59 alleged rioters stood trial at the High Court for the murders of Dutton and three other guards. The number of accused was reduced from 71 to 59 after the preliminary hearings ended with the discharge of 12 defendants from the case. Till today, the trial was known to be the largest ever conducted in the legal history of both Singapore and Malaysia (since Singapore was still a part of Malaysia at the time of the trial), given that there was a high number of defendants being charged with murder. For easier identification, the 59 accused were to wear number tags: the ringleader Tan Kheng Ann was labelled as Accused No. 1, while his two trusted henchmen Chia Yeow Fatt (alias Botak; ; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Chhia Yû-fat) and Cheong Wai Sang (alias See Jap Kau Sian; ), who were also among the principal perpetrators of the riot, were labelled as Accused No. 2 and 3 respectively. A special courtroom dock was designed to accommodate the 59 defendants. The trial prosecutor was Francis Seow, who was notable for prosecuting law student Sunny Ang and bar hostess Mimi Wong for murder. The trial judge was Murray Buttrose, who was best known for sentencing the aforementioned killer Sunny Ang to death for killing his girlfriend. A special jury of seven members was selected to hear the case, and back then in Singapore, jury trials were conducted to hear capital cases up until 1970, before the abolition of the jury system. Allen Tan Kiat Peng, a detainee who was serving the remainder of his seven-year sentence for robbery on Pulau Senang, stated that the treatment of the detainees were generally "okay" and there was little to no abuse coming from the officers, despite conceding that there was indeed excessive workload on the island. Chong Sek Ling, a former gang leader who spent time on Pulau Senang, testified that after an event in July where thirteen carpenters were sent back from Pulau Senang to Changi Prison due to their refusal to repair a jetty during nighttime, he overheard more than ten high-ranking gang leaders discussing about their plan to kill Dutton and the other officers of the settlement, due to their dissatisfaction of the treatment they faced and hatred against Dutton for his supposed iron-fist rule and discipline. Among these people, Chong identified Dutton's closest friend and detainee Tan Kheng Ann, Tan's two henchmen Cheong and Chia, and Hoe Hock Hai (alias Ah Hai; Accused No. 11; ; Pe̍h-ūe-jī: Hôu Hok-hái). Chong stated that he warned Dutton about the upcoming murder plot, but Dutton, whose nickname was "Laughing Tiger", laughed it off and thought that it would not be a big threat on his life even if there was such a conspiracy, although he did ask for the names of the ringleaders. According to Chong, Hoe remarked during their discussion that this unrest would shake the whole of Malaya (present-day Malaysia). Chong further testified about what he witnessed on the day when the riots happened. One of the things he saw while hiding in the forest was some of the rioters going after Goh Keng Wah (alias See Kar Chua or monitor lizard in Hokkien), a detainee who was an informant of the guards. Goh tried to seek help from Corporal Choo Ah Kim, who was subsequently beaten by the guards despite managing to help Goh escape. During the assault, Corporal Choo was saved by another detainee Quek Hai Cheng, who shielded the blows aimed at the officer, who also confirmed Quek's actions during the preliminary hearing. Liew Woon, another former detainee, also said that he saw two of the defendants – Chan Wah (Accused No. 9; ) and Sim Hoe Seng (Accused No. 25; ) – climbing the roof of the radio room (where Dutton was using the radio to call for help), chopping through the roof and pouring petrol before starting a fire, causing Dutton, whose body was on fire, to run out of the building, upon which the rioters killed him in a deadly assault. Tan King Hak, an engine diesel instructor of the settlement, also testified that after escaping the radio room, he saw a detainee Lim Tee Kang (Accused No. 5; ; Pe̍h-ūe-jī: Lîm Tsì-khang or ; Pe̍h-ūe-jī: Lîm Tsì-kang) cutting the wires of the radio with an axe as he and three other rioters Lim Kim Chuan (Accused No. 7; ), Ponapalam Govindasamy (Accused No. 12) and Ng Cheng Liong (Accused No. 26; ) surrounded the burning radio room to prepare their fatal attack on Dutton (who was still inside). Witnesses also told the court about the deaths of the other three victims. Among them, Allen Tan testified in court that one rioter Chan Wah was responsible for the killing of the officer Tan Kok Hian, who was chopped to death by Chan with a parang. As for the attack on Arumugam Veerasingham, Choo identified Lim Tee Kang, Somasundarajoo Vengdasalam (Accused No. 6), Ng Cheng Liong and Ng Chuan Puay (Accused No. 22) as among the seven or eight rioters chasing Veerasingham. Yong Thiam Huat, a clerk from the prison, identified Chew Seng Hoe (Accused No. 15) as the rioter who directly killed Veerasingham. Lee Mow Cheng (), a settlement guard who was formerly jailed in 1960 on Pulau Senang before his subsequent release and employment as a guard, stated that while hiding from the rioters under an unserviceable car, he witnessed several detainees, including Quek Hai Cheng, rescuing the heavily injured Tailford and brought him to safety. Lee said that prior to his murder, Dutton refused to arm himself despite telling Lee to arm himself before sending him away to safety. Many other detainees, as well as the surviving prison settlement attendants and guards - including Wang Loke Hai (alias Cartoon), Chia Teck Whee and Robert Choo - were also called to the stand to give evidence for the prosecution, and they identified those whom they seen taking part in the riots. At one point, when Robert Choo identified Chua Hai Imm (Accused No. 24) as a rioter, Chua angrily shouted at Choo and told him to stop framing him despite the judge's warnings. Deputy Superintendent John Tailford, who survived his injuries, also appeared as a witness but he suffered from retrograde amnesia and had no memory of the riots, hence he could not identify the rioters and can only tell the court that his injuries resulted from "some fighting" on Pulau Senang. The prosecution's case was presented between November 1963 and February 1964. A month before the prosecution ended their case, one of the 59 defendants Tan Eng How (or Tan Eng Hoe), known as Accused No. 45, was acquitted of all charges and set free since a prosecution witness clearly stated Tan was hiding with him during the onslaught. The release of Tan Eng How left 58 men to remain on trial for murder. Defence's case and summing-up of case In February 1964, the 58 accused rioters were ordered to make their defence. 42 of them elected to remain silent, while the remaining accused either testified on the stand or made unsworn statements on the dock. For those who made their defence, including Somasundram Subramaniam (Accused No. 4), Aziz bin Salim (Accused No. 36), Lim Heng Soon (Accused No. 53) and Chia Tiong Guan (Accused No. 55), their main defences were that they were being wrongfully charged due to mistaken identities, or that they were named by some of the witnesses due to personal grudges with these people, including the guards. The defence sought to argue that the men only revolted due to their dissatisfaction over the living conditions of Pulau Senang and they claimed that the rioters should not be guilty of murder, given that not all of them shared the common intention to spark destruction and make attempts on the lives of Dutton and his assistants. After the defence and prosecution made their final submissions, the trial judge Murray Buttrose spent five days summing up the case for the jury to consider before reaching their verdict and adjourned the proceedings on 11 March 1964. The trial lasted for a total of 64 days, the longest ever in the history of both Singapore and Malaysia. ==Final verdict==

On 12 March 1964, after an adjournment overnight to consider the verdict, the seven-men jury returned with the verdict they had decided upon, and presented it to the judge. ;Acquittal Out of the 58 accused, the jury found eleven of the defendants not guilty of all charges and therefore, Justice Buttrose granted these eleven people a discharge amounting to an acquittal. ;Rioting with deadly weapons After which, the jury stated that they found eighteen out of the remaining 36 defendants guilty of rioting with dangerous weapons. Here once again, Justice Buttrose personally addressed to these eighteen convicts that they should consider themselves, like the eleven guilty of rioting before them, the luckiest people alive and repeated essentially the same remarks he did to the eleven rioters before these eighteen guilty of armed rioting. At this point again, Justice Buttrose stated that the sentence he passed was "inadequate" and yet the maximum he was legally allowed to mete out, before sentencing these eighteen rioters to the maximum of three years' imprisonment for rioting with deadly weapons. ==Sentences of the rioters==

The following list contains the names of the rioters and the sentences they received at the end of the Pulau Senang trial. ;Acquittal - Not guilty: • Chin Kiong - Accused No. 10 • Peh Guan Hock - Accused No. 13 • Chia Geok Choo - Accused No. 14 • Yeow Yew Boon - Accused No. 16 • Teng Eng Tay - Accused No. 17 • Ong Aik Kwong - Accused No. 18 • Lim Teck San - Accused No. 21 • Ng Chuan Puay - Accused No. 22 • Chua Hai Imm - Accused No. 24 • Teo Han Teck - Accused No. 30 • Sia Ah Kow - Accused No. 32 • Tan Tian Soo - Accused No. 33 • Aziz bin Salim - Accused No. 36 • Chew Yam Mang - Accused No. 37 • Teo Lian Choon - Accused No. 38 • Tan Chin - Accused No. 40 • Heng Boon Leng - Accused No. 47 • Neo Kim Leong - Accused No. 51 ;Murder - Death penalty: • Tan Kheng Ann - Accused No. 1 • Chia Yeow Fatt - Accused No. 2 • Cheong Wai Sang - Accused No. 3 • Somasundram s/o Subramaniam - Accused No. 4 • Lim Tee Kang - Accused No. 5 • Somasundarajoo s/o Vengdasalam - Accused No. 6 • Lim Kim Chuan - Accused No. 7 • Khoo Geok San - Accused No. 8 • Chan Wah - Accused No. 9 • Hoe Hock Hai - Accused No. 11 • Ponapalam s/o Govindasamy - Accused No. 12 • Chew Seng Hoe - Accused No. 15 • Chew Thiam Huat - Accused No. 19 • Sim Hoe Seng - Accused No. 25 • Ng Cheng Liong - Accused No. 26 • Tan Yin Chwee - Accused No. 27 • Sim Teck Beng - Accused No. 31 • Cheng Poh Kheng - Accused No. 58 ==Fates of the eighteen condemned==

, where the eighteen rioters were incarcerated on death row before their executions at the prison gallows After the end of the 64-day trial, the eighteen men on death row for murder later appealed to the Federal Court of Malaysia to review their cases, with veteran lawyer and opposition politician and former Chief Minister of Singapore David Saul Marshall representing them in the appeal, but they all lost their appeals in May 1965. They were also denied leave to appeal to the Privy Council of London against their sentences. In a final bid to escape the gallows, all the eighteen condemned submitted a plea for clemency. By this time, Singapore became a sovereign state after its independence from Malaysia on 9 August 1965, meaning that the men's clemency petitions would be reviewed by Yusof Ishak, the first President of Singapore since its independence. However, President Yusof decided to not pardon the eighteen death row rioters and therefore on 19 October 1965, he dismissed their clemency appeal and finalized their death sentences for murder. Soon after, the death warrant was issued for all eighteen men, scheduling them all to be hanged ten days later on 29 October 1965. During their time on death row, the eighteen condemned were counselled by Reverend Khoo Seow Wah (or Khoo Siau Hua), who preached to them his Christian beliefs and gradually, the eighteen men reflected on their wrongdoings and they showed both regret and repentance for their acts, as witnessed by Reverend Khoo, although some prison guards who supervised them did not feel that they were genuinely remorseful of their crimes. Before their hangings, Tan Kheng Ann, who was English-educated, penned a letter on behalf of himself and the seventeen others to show their gratitude to Reverend Khoo for his kindness and guidance. On the Friday morning of 29 October 1965, the eighteen men, including Tan Kheng Ann (then 24 years old) and his two henchmen Cheong Wai Sang and Chia Yeow Fatt, were all hanged at Changi Prison, with the prison's veteran executioner Darshan Singh being solely in charge of their executions. The eighteen men were executed in batches of three by a ten-minute time interval, and all of them sang as they made their final steps to the gallows. Hundreds of relatives of the eighteen men, who all made their final visits on the eve of the executions, gathered outside the prison compound to reclaim the bodies. According to a Sin Chew Jit Poh article published on 30 October 1965, the mother of one of the executed men was reportedly so distraught that she nearly collapsed at the sight of her son's body and had to be helped up by relatives. Out of the eighteen condemned, only one was married with two children, and all of the men were in their twenties and the oldest of them was at most thirty years old. ==Aftermath==

Five years after the riots occurred, Pulau Senang was declared out of bounds in 1968, and the government's subsequent plans to renovate the island for economic means failed to materialize. In 1984, the island was converted to a live-firing range, where it was provided exclusively to the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) for military training and restricted to outsiders. In the aftermath of the riots, one of the survivors John Tailford, who was grievously injured in the riots, died of cancer in March 1988, at the age of 64. Murray Buttrose, the trial judge of the case, retired in 1968 and returned to Australia, where he lived until his death at the age of 84 in September 1987, and the Pulau Senang trial was cited as one of the iconic cases ever presided by Justice Buttrose, who was the last colonial judge to serve in independent Singapore. Francis Seow, the trial prosecutor of the case, later switched to private practice in 1972, became a dissident and joined politics as a member of the opposition politics, but he later left Singapore in 1988 before his trial for tax evasion, which resulted in his conviction in absentia. Seow lived in political exile at the United States for the next 28 years before he died at the age of 88 in January 2016. In a Straits Times article which reported Seow's death and his former cases as a prosecutor, a retired civil servant recalled in an interview about Seow's determination to seek the death penalty for at least a dozen of the Pulau Senang rioters, as he firmly believed that a very clear signal should be given to all prisoners that anyone found guilty of the intentional killing of a prison officer would face the full brunt of the law, which he fulfilled in the end by successfully having eighteen of the 58 rioters sentenced to the gallows. The Pulau Senang trial was known to be the case where the highest number of death sentences was imposed in a single trial, with eighteen people being sentenced to hang for murder. This highest record remained unsurpassed, even though the year 1976 was reported as the year where it had sixteen people sentenced to death, the highest record garnered in a decade. ==In popular media==

The rioting incident at Pulau Senang was remembered as one of the bloodiest moments of Singapore's history before its independence. Singapore-based British journalist Alex Josey wrote a book about the case, titled Pulau Senang: The experiment that failed, and it was first published in 1980. Kok Heng Leun directed the play, with an all-male ensemble cast, which included Oliver Chong, Chad O'Brien, Ong Kian Sin, Tay Kong Hui, Peter Sau, Rei Poh and Neo Hai Bin. In 2022, 59 years after the riots at Pulau Senang, CNA produced a two-part documentary, which covered the Pulau Senang tragedy. Dutton's younger half-brother Michael and granddaughter Ferlynna were both interviewed in the documentary. Both expressed their pride in Dutton for having proven his beliefs of rehabilitating criminals through hard work, but also their sadness for his unfortunate death. Ferlynna also stated that the eighteen men hanged for her grandfather's murder "deserved" what they had gotten. This also marked the first time Michael Dutton get to come to Singapore to visit his elder half-brother's grave, seventy years after he last met his late brother. Michael stated that to a certain extent, he felt sorry for the eighteen condemned who killed his brother but eventually paid for it with their lives, although he agreed that they should be punished for the crime. Also, law professors, lawyers, police officers and humanities experts, including some from the National University of Singapore, were approached to give an analysis of the case, stating that the Pulau Senang incident would have been averted had the shortcomings like the abuse from prison guards and overworking had been addressed adequately. ==See also==