Woo convinced her followers through regular and lengthy spiritual sessions that she was a deity who could communicate with gods and spirits, dictating that they call her “lord”.
The court heard that a lot of her followers sought healing for themselves or their family members and due to this fact zealously followed Woo’s teachings.
Woo taught her followers that they needed to clear their “bad karma” and increase their “good karma” to enhance their health, and she or he taught them how one can do that by making payments to Amma in India.
She convinced her followers to declare how much money that they had, warning them that they might be punished by the gods in the event that they lied, then persuaded them to provide her the cash.
She claimed that she would collect the cash and send it to India, where it will be used to purchase cows or construct temples and schools within the country.
Woo also ordered her followers to purchase houses, apartments and cars as a “type of worship” that she herself used.
In total, she defrauded her direct followers out of S$7 million ($5.2 million) between 2012 and 2020. She defrauded them to take out one other A$6.6 million loan from financial institutions. She has since made a refund of A$675,000.
Woo controlled her followers, directing one-third of them to live along with her and serve her full-time, buying her groceries, cooking for her, cleansing her house, and giving her rides.
Some were ordered to depart their jobs, but all were required to report back to her on their each day activities and communications.
If followers didn’t completely obey Woo, she inflicted various brutal and degrading punishments on them.
These include beating them with bundles of canes or brushes, stabbing them with scissors, having their teeth extracted with pliers, forcing them to eat human feces, and jumping from the second floor of a constructing.
Punishments administered by Woo herself or carried out by her instructed followers caused lasting damage to some followers. These include the lack of several teeth and an eye fixed injury from being caned.
If a follower tried to depart the group, Woo harassed him with a barrage of phone calls and threatened to take him down. The frightened copycat would then return to the group and face severe punishment.
One of Woo’s victims, a 43-year-old Singaporean woman, stayed along with her in 2019. Woo on one occasion punished her with a bundle of 5 canes, repeatedly hitting her in the top and face and in a single eye.
The woman felt a pointy pain and saw a flash before she fell to the bottom.
She told Woo in regards to the pain, but Woo responded by asking her to make use of “holy water” to clean her eyes and drink the liquid. She also instructed the victim to look directly on the sun.
The woman followed Woo’s instructions, but over time her vision began to blur and deteriorate. Woo forbade her to hunt medical attention, and she or he only did so later, lying to a physician that the injury was brought on by a fall.
She would require lifelong monitoring for possible glaucoma or optic nerve damage, and her vision within the damaged eye will likely remain worse than in the opposite eye.
In October 2019, this victim and one other follower helped move items from an office in Ubi Techpark. Woo learned that the victim had borrowed S$100 from someone without telling her and have become offended.
She told the victim to leap down from the second floor of the constructing. The woman climbed onto the railing, but she got scared and commenced crying.
Woo told her that if she didn’t jump, the opposite supporter would push her down. Finally, the victim jumped, landing on each feet, feeling excruciating pain and immediately falling.
Woo told her to “stop pretending” and get up. She later persuaded a second observer to bring a wheelchair from the office in order that the victim could sit in it.
The victim only belatedly sought medical attention again because she was not allowed to achieve this. She was diagnosed with fractures to each ankles and plantar fasciitis, a style of heel pain accompanied by tissue inflammation.
It wasn’t until mid-2020 that several followers filed police reports against her, claiming that they had suffered intense physical abuse, lost their life savings, and brought out huge bank loans that they were unable to repay.
Woo was arrested in October 2020.
On Wednesday, she was dropped at court from the penal complex wearing a white shirt and a blue mask. She had short hair.
One of her members of the family or friends who was present on the court hearing noticed that she had lost weight.
Some of Woo’s victims were also present on the hearing but declined to comment when approached by CNA after the decision.
She was examined by the Institute of Mental Health and it was found that on the time of committing the crimes she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, which had an extra reference to the crimes.
However, it was found that she was aware that every one her actions were illegal.
Her cheating actions were found to be intentional and under her control.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of nine to 12 years in prison for Woo, saying she had introduced a “reign of terror” over her followers and abused their “exceptional faith and trust” in her to “bleed them dry of their life savings.”
She also manipulated them into selling their properties, canceling their insurance policies and taking out extensive loans they may not afford.
Defense attorney Caryn Lee of IRB Law as a substitute asked for 69 months in prison, declaring that her client’s mental state affected her considering, emotions and behavior.
Deputy Chief District Judge Ong Chin Rhu pointed to the damage Woo caused to her followers and the way she exercised control over their funds. She said the initial criminal mischief sentences would have been “significantly increased” were it not for Woo’s mental illness.
