Margaret Drive hawker murders

On 12 December 1976, at Margaret Drive Hawker Centre in Queenstown, 24-year-old Phoon Ah Leong (潘汉良 Pān Hànliáng) and his 56-year-old mother Hu Yuen Keng (许润琼 Xǚ Rùnqióng) were both murdered by another hawker operating at the same hawker centre, 35-year-old Haw Tua Tau (侯大头 Hóu Dàtóu), who used a hand scraper to stab the mother–son pair to their deaths. The murders were committed as a result of Haw being angered that the tables were not being cleaned properly and the prior quarrels Haw had with the victims over the cleaning of tables.

Haw was charged with the double murder and sentenced to death in March 1978. Haw was hanged in 1982 for the hawker killings, but his final appeal to the Privy Council in London became a landmark case in Singapore's legal history with regard to the prosecution's need to fulfil the burden of proof and presenting a prima facie case against a defendant in Singapore.

Murders of Phoon Ah Leong and Hu Yuen Keng

On 12 December 1976, at Margaret Drive Hawker Centre in Queenstown, two hawkers working at the centre were brutally stabbed to death by another hawker over an alleged dispute, and the brutal stabbing ended with the murderer fleeing the scene. The two victims were 24-year-old Phoon Ah Leong and his 56-year-old mother Hu Yuen Keng, who were both operating a stall selling roast duck and noodles at the centre itself.

According to Professor Chao Tzee Cheng, the senior forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on both the victims, he determined that Phoon was stabbed once in the heart, and the stab wound was the cause of Phoon's death. He similarly determined that Hu died as a result of two stab wounds that penetrated the heart.

At the time when the mother-son pair died, Hu was married to her husband Phoon See (潘诗 Pān Shī), and Phoon Ah Leong was the second son and third child of both Hu and her husband; he had two brothers Phoon Hon Sun (潘汉生 Pān Hànshēng; Phoon's elder brother) and Phoon Hon Pun (潘汉彬 Pān Hànbīn; Phoon's younger brother) and one sister Phoon Kai Kiew (潘佳巧 Pān Jiāqiăo), who were among the witnesses (including the stall assistant and customers) of the double murder.

Criminal charges

Inspector Leong Kong Hong became in charge of the police investigations, and they managed to identify the suspect, who was arrested at Singapore General Hospital where he sought treatment for an arm injury he sustained from the earlier stabbing.