Tan Hui Zen and Pua Hak Chan: Husband blames wife for abusing intellectually-impaired girl, says he was also a victim and too scared to stop her

More than two years after the death of intellectually-impaired and systematically-abused Annie Ee Yu Lian, her killers and abusers are set to be sentenced.

Tan Hui Zen, 33, and Pua Had Chan, 38, beat Annie regularly in increasing viciousness in the last eight months of her life until she succumbed to horrifying injuries–none of which were treated.

Their reasons?

Pua says he could not say no to his wife out of fear.

And Tan has been diagnosed with anger management and anxiety issues.

Why did they hurt her so badly?

Details on the case and the motive behind the systematic abuse came to light after the hearing last week.

According to a Chinese news source, Zaobao.com, the husband, Pua, said that he only hit Annie because his wife ordered him to.

Here is how he justified the abuse he inflicted on Annie, who could do nothing but accept it, as she had low IQ and no one was around to protect or be an advocate for her:

“I am afraid of my wife. I don’t agree with beating the victim, but if I don’t assist my wife to beat her, my wife will continue to beat her non-stop.”

He claims that when his wife beat the victim till she is tired, he will takeover becuase his wife ask him to and he is scare of his wife.

When his wife discovers he is not beating the victim hard enough, he will hit harder as he would not dare to defy his wife.

Sometimes, he also felt the wife should not be beating the vicitim. When he saw the victim’s buttock was seriously injured, he told his wife to let her rest for one or two weeks and only hit her again after she recover.

But his wife refused to listen. After 2 to 3 days rest, she started beating her again.

He said, “I don’t dare to defy my wife. There were many occasions when she beat up the victim, and he continued that, “I was there but I did not participate.”

What about Tan?

While the husband blamed his wife for the beatings and tried to exonerate himself, the wife’s defence had a different strategy.

According to Tan’s defence, she was driven to abuse the victim because of her fragile and complex mental state brought about by three miscarriages.

An Institute of Mental Health report said Tan’s mental construct was “complex” as she had multiple psychiatric conditions including a borderline personality disorder and depression.

What do the prosecutors think?

What do netizens think about this case?