19-6-2024 (SINGAPORE) A 54-year-old Singaporean woman, Woo May Hoe, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday (Jun 19) for a series of heinous crimes against her “spiritual” followers, whom she brainwashed into believing she was a deity.
Over a span of eight years from 2012, Woo led a group of around 30 individuals who followed the teachings of Sri Sakthi Narayani Amma, a spiritual leader in India. However, Woo manipulated her followers into believing she was a divine being capable of communicating with gods and spirits, forcing them to address her as “lord.”
Many of her followers sought healing for themselves or their loved ones and, as a result, fervently adhered to Woo’s teachings. The court heard that Woo instructed her followers to clear their “bad karma” and increase their “good karma” by making payments to Amma in India.
Exploiting her position of authority, Woo coerced her followers into disclosing their financial assets, warning them of divine punishment if they lied. She then persuaded them to hand over the money, claiming it would be transferred to India for charitable purposes such as buying cows or constructing temples and schools.
In a shocking display of control, Woo ordered a third of her followers to move in with her and serve her full-time, performing tasks such as grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, and driving her around. Some were even instructed to quit their jobs, while all were required to report their daily activities and communications to her.
Those who disobeyed Woo faced horrific punishments, including being hit with bundles of canes or paintbrushes, stabbed with scissors, having their teeth forcibly extracted with pliers, forced to consume human feces, and ordered to jump from the second floor of a building.
These brutal acts resulted in permanent injuries for some followers, including the loss of teeth and eye damage from being caned. Woo’s reign of terror extended to harassing and threatening those who attempted to leave the group, forcing them to return and face severe punishment.
One victim, a 43-year-old Singaporean woman, suffered a serious eye injury after Woo repeatedly struck her head and face with a bundle of five canes. Despite the woman’s pleas, Woo instructed her to stare directly at the sun and drink “holy water,” leading to blurred vision and potential long-term damage.
In another incident, Woo forced the same victim to jump from the second floor of a building after discovering she had borrowed money without permission. The woman sustained fractures in both ankles and plantar fasciitis, a painful heel condition.
It was not until mid-2020 that a few followers lodged police reports against Woo, exposing her extensive physical abuse and financial exploitation, which led to her arrest in October of that year.
Woo was assessed by the Institute of Mental Health and found to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of her offenses, which had a contributory link to her actions. However, she was deemed cognizant of the illegality of her acts, and her acts of cheating were found to be deliberate and within her control.
The prosecution sought a sentence of 9 to 12 years, highlighting Woo’s “reign of terror” over her followers and the abuse of their “exceptional faith and trust” to “bleed them dry of their life savings.”
In delivering the 10-and-a-half-year sentence, Deputy Principal District Judge Ong Chin Rhu acknowledged the harm Woo caused to her followers and the “stranglehold” she had over their finances, stating that there would have been “substantially higher uplifts” for the causing hurt charges if not for Woo’s mental illness.
