List of major crimes in Singapore (2020–present)

For other major crimes committed in Singapore, see List of major crimes in Singapore.

This incomplete list is frequently updated to include new information.

The following is a list of major crimes in Singapore that happened in 2020 and beyond. They are arranged in chronological order.

2020

• 3 January 2020: Paul Leslie Quirk, a schizophrenic Australian, was arrested at his condominium at Compassvale for allegedly killing his Singaporean wife Christina Khoo via a mop stick and throwing his dog from the balcony to its death. Initially charged with murder, Quirk was found guilty of a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder as he was suffering from a relapse of his schizophrenia at the time he murdered Khoo. Quirk was later sentenced to serve a 10 year jail sentence on 24 May 2021.
• February 2020: Megak Khung was allegedly killed by her mother and its boyfriend, in which her corpse was later burned with the help of her friend about three months later. Khung's grandmother lodged a police report on 20 July which led to its arrests of all three suspects for the alleged murder. All three suspects are currently pending trial.
• March 2020 – 10 November 2020: For eight months, an 11-year-old girl (whose name was withheld due to a gag order) was physically abused by her stepfather Mohamad Fazli Selamat and mother Roslinda Jamil inside their Jurong flat. The girl was reportedly made to eat chilli padi or being beaten by an exercise bar or other objects as punishment for her supposed misconducts. The girl died from the abuse around 7 November following another abuse from Fazli (her mother Roslinda acted as a bystander). Both parents were charged for murder, but in February 2023, Fazli pleaded guilty to manslaughter and another five counts of child abuse while Roslinda pleaded guilty to allowing the death of her child in the same household and child abuse. Fazli was sentenced to 15 years and 11 months' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane on 15 February 2024, while Roslinda was jailed for seven years, eight months and three weeks.
• 10 May 2020: A jogger was stabbed to death by a man in Punggol, which the attack was recorded through a CCTV camera. About a week after the victim, Tay Rui Hao, was killed, Surajsrikan Diwakar Mani Tripathi was arrested. Surajsrikan was reported to have emotional distress on the date of 10 May; in 1999, his father abandoned his then-pregnant mother about two months after the marriage, and in 2018, he was enlisted by the military. He was assessed to be suffering from borderline intelligence, and both severe social anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, though he was mentally sound and fit to stand trial. Surajsrikan was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with 15 strokes of the cane on 15 September 2022. This case also prompted the government to pass laws to allow police to obtain data from TraceTogether for police investigations.
• 27 August 2020: A Chinese foreigner Cui Huan beat up his wife for four years, Liang Xueqiu after being caught of an affair with another man; Liang died from Intracerebral hemorrhage as a result of the injuries. Initially charged with murder, but was lowered to a charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt in November 2021; he was then indicted on 15 February 2022 with a seven-year jail term and nine strokes of the cane.

2021

• 2 April 2021: A cleaner on a work permit from Myanmar, Naing Lin, stabbed his fellow roommate and engineer Myo Kyaw Thu, also from Myanmar, following an argument and insult over Myo's issue over moneylending. Naing fled from the scene before returning to his dorm to discover Myo was found dead; he surrendered to the police for a murder charge, and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 September 2022 after Naing pleaded guilty; however, he was not caned due to his age.
• 12 April 2021: In the first case of an armed robbery involving firearms in 15 years, a debt-ridden Aetos auxiliary police officer Mahadi Muhamad Mukhtar was armed with his service revolver to rob a licensed moneylending company at Jurong amounting to more than $24,800, which he used part of the proceeds to clear his debts and remit some to his girlfriend. Mahadi was convicted on 13 September for one charge of robbery and two charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition under the Arms Offences Act, and he was sentenced to 16 years and six months' imprisonment and 18 strokes of the cane. Mahadi's girlfriend was initially charged with dishonestly receiving stolen property in the same month of Mahadi's arrest, but was acquitted by the court in August 2022 following further investigations. In May 2023, an appeal reduced Mahadi's term to 14 years, although his caning remained at 18.
• 19 July 2021: River Valley High School student Ethan Hun Zhe Kai was murdered by a 16-year-old student (who could not be named under the Children and Young Persons Act) via an axe and a kitchen knife. He was subsequently arrested and charged with murder the following day, and these weapons were recovered on the scene in a toilet. The attacker was found to have previously attempted suicide in 2019 and subsequently assessed at the Institute of Mental Health that same year. On 1 December 2023, the charge was subsequently reduced to culpable homicide not amounting to murder; the student pleaded guilty and served a 16-year jail sentence. The sentence was imposed by Justice Hoo Sheau Peng over detterence and noted that the student had went through premeditation and planning to kill Hun.

2022

• 11 January 2022: David Brian Chow Kwok-Hun murdered his wife Isabel Elizabeth Francis, who was 15 weeks' pregnant at the time of death, through stabbing whilst asleep. Chow did this because he would want to attempt to commit suicide following a misunderstanding of his company going bankrupt over a wrong accounting report, and that he would relieve Francis' fear of being a widow; he ultimately surrendered himself to the police following two unsuccessful attempts. He was jailed for seven years following the court indicting him a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder on 26 October 2023.
• 21 January 2022: A pair of 11-year-old twin boys with disabilities, Ethan and Aston Yap, were found dead in a canal next to a playground along Greenridge Crescent. Their father, Xavier, was arrested the day after. Following psychiatric investigations of major depressive disorder of moderate severity, the court reduced his charge to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and on 15 August 2023, pleaded guilty with a 14-year jail sentence.
• 17 February 2022: A knife-wielding man was shot by police officers during a confrontation outside Clementi Neighbourhood Police Centre at around 11pm. The man was identified to be 49-year-old Soo Cheow Wee who was involved in an earlier assault case that happened around 8:40pm where police were alerted that a 41-year-old man was allegedly assaulted with a knife by the same suspect along Block 420A Clementi Avenue 1. The 41-year-old man has sustained injuries on his right arm and wrist. Preliminary investigations revealed that neither of them knew each other. In a statement, the police revealed that right after the first incident took place, Soo took a taxi to Clementi Police Division and was seen wielding a knife while standing outside the police station. Officers that were on duty approached Soo but he was shouting at the police officers incoherently and despite repeated instructions to drop his knife, the suspect refused to do so and charged towards one of the officers, who fired a shot at Soo. Soo suffered a gunshot wound on his left arm and was detained by the officers, before he was taken to hospital for treatment. Soo was charged in court on 18 February 2022 for criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon, and on 26 October 2022, Soo, who turned 50 before his September 2022 trial, was convicted and sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment for committing these armed assaults, and he escaped caning due to his age. In April 2023, the prosecution appealed for a sentence of at least five years' corrective training or a jail term of 57 to 63 months on the grounds that Soo's sentence was "manifestly inadequate" while Soo's defence lawyer Chooi Jing Yen sought to further reduce his client's sentence to 23 months. On 31 July 2023, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon dismissed the prosecution's appeal but allowed Soo's appeal, and lowered his sentence from 33 months to 27 months, after finding that Soo's mental condition was not adequately taken into consideration by the district judge during sentencing. In the meantime, with respect to his current sentence, Soo would be released tentatively in August 2023 should he maintained good behaviour while in prison.
• 6 April 2022: Niswan Thiruchelvam and Muhammad Sajid Saleem both used bread knives to attack two wedding guests, Praveen Raj Chanthiran and Sarankumar Subramaniam, at an open-air carpark. They were arrested through a manhunt, and was charged for voluntarily causing grievous hurt; Niswan was additionally charged for being a member of an unlwaful assembly, in which he joined a gang in 2016 and was given a three years and three months of jail sentence and six strokes of the cane; he also was fined S$1,800 and given a 12-month driving disqualification for a separate traffic offence. Sajid pleaded guilty on 2 November, while Niswan was separately tried and convicted after he pled guilty to his charges a week later and the court determined the sentence on 30 November.
• 14 April 2022: A Chinese national attacked a woman with a cleaver outside a restaurant located at along Beach Road. Several colleagues and workers from other restaurants managed to save the victim from the attack and endured a retaliation from the man itself in the process; he was eventually cornered in another restaurant where police officers managed to subdue him with a taser. He was charged two days later for attempted murder.
• 4 July 2022: A China-born Singaporean PR and his Thai wife, who were both wanted in connection with a luxury goods scam amounting to S$32 million in undelivered goods, fled to Singapore by hiding in a container compartment of a lorry departing for Malaysia; the two Malaysian drivers were arrested for abetting the couple to flee and illegal entry. An Interpol red notice was issued for the couple on 21 July. They were arrested on 11 August inside a hotel around Johor Bahru and was deported to Singapore. Investigations are ongoing.
• 10 October 2022: Sylesnar Seah Jie Kai killed his father Eddie Seah Wee Teck following an argument at the flat around midnight, and was arrested immediately with a charge issued on 12 October.

2023

• 14 January 2023: A couple was charged for the infanticide of their two-month-old biological daughter, later identified as Zabelle Peh, who was abused and suffered a fractured skull. The accused couple are currently awaiting trial as of 2024.
• 15 August 2023: Ten Chinese foreigners were arrested for the involvement of the largest money laundering case in Singapore's history, where a total of $3 billion were seized during the investigations. All of them were given jail terms ranging from 13 months to 17 months in 2024.
• 20 August 2023: A brawl occurred at the Concorde Hotel along Orchard Road, where a group of more than ten people severely injuring two people, one of which, Mohammad Isrrat, later died. 14 people were arrested for the death of Mohammad Isrrat; one of which was charged with murder while another another 16 suspect were convicted with lesser charges ranging between rioting and causing hurt. On 25 June 2024, one of the suspects, Sharvin Jay Nair, who caused hurt to Isrrat, who was given a 12 month-eight week jail term and a $2,000 fine. One suspect was acquitted of all charges and a third was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal as of June 2024.
• 30 October 2023: A man was charged for assaulting two policemen with a stun device at Victoria Street, alongside possession of dangerous weapons and controlled drugs, both of which were legally forbidden by law. The two policemen were taken to hospital for recovery.

2024

• 29 March 2024: 28 people residing in Singapore between the ages of 18 and 59 were arrested for various charges relating to child sexual exploitation. For five weeks, the Singapore Police Force collaborated with the Hong Kong Police Force and South Korean National Police Agency to arrest a total of 273 suspects, with the youngest being 12 years of age.
• 6 September 2024: A 41-year-old Chinese national Wu Tao was accused for the murder of 48-year-old female hawker Tan Kamonwan inside a stall called Dao Xiang Ju, located at Kadayanallur Street, next to Maxwell Food Centre; preliminary investigations revealed that both parties knew each other.
• 22 September 2024: A brawl happened at Kim San Leng Eating House along Verdun Road at 4am; there are two reported injuries and one fatality. The case has been classified as murder and as a riot. Three men and four suspects were accused from rioting and is currently under investigation.

See also

• Capital punishment in Singapore
• Life imprisonment in Singapore
• List of major crimes in Singapore