by Alex Josey
Mr Francis Seow: When do you depart from the truth?
Sunny Ang: I cannot give you instances. Everybody does depart from the truth some time or other.
Mr Francis Seow: Would you depart from the truth when it suits your purpose?
Sunny Ang: Not exactly.
Mr Francis Seow: Then when?
Sunny Ang: I told you I cannot quote instances, but I do.
Mr Francis Seow: In this particular case have you told any untruth?
Sunny Ang: No.
Mr Francis Seow: Not one?
Sunny Ang: Not one untruth.
Mr Francis Seow: Either to the insurance companies or to any person in connection with this case?
Sunny Ang: I admit I did tell some untruths to the insurance companies.
His Lordship: Would you describe them as white lies or blunt untruths?
Sunny Ang: Untruths.
His Lordship: They were falsehoods.
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: To gain a certain purpose?
Sunny Ang: Not exactly. Can you give me an example? Then I will tell you whether I did for a certain purpose or not.
Mr Francis Seow: What about the letters to the Great Eastern Life for the purpose of getting insurance which Jenny had applied for?
Sunny Ang: That was not the primary reason. The primary reason was to get commission, which I would get if the policy is accepted.
His Lordship: You lied with the golden hope of gaining?
Sunny Ang: To get commission.
Mr Francis Seow: Where is Jenny?
Sunny Ang: I do not know.
Mr Francis Seow: Is she dead?
Sunny Ang: Presumably so.
Mr Francis Seow: Why do you presume she is dead?
Sunny Ang: Because she has not been heard of since.
Mr Francis Seow: If she is alive would she have contacted you?
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: And she has done that?
Sunny Ang: No.
Crown counsel asked Ang about his plans to change his name, about his participation in the Singapore Grand Prix in 1961, and about his anxiety to have a coroner’s inquiry into Jenny’s disappearance.
Mr Francis Seow: Because the coroner could make a finding that she is formally dead?
Sunny Ang: We had hopes of that.
Mr Francis Seow: You had hopes of that?
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: And, once the coroner makes that finding, the way is then very clear for you to collect $450,000 through your mother?
Sunny Ang: $300,000.
Mr Francis Seow: You have calculated that?
Sunny Ang: That is obvious.
Mr Francis Seow: You had hopes to collect that other $150,000? You were going to contest it?
Sunny Ang: It is impossible to contest.
Mr Francis Seow: But you were prepared to contest for $100,000?
Sunny Ang: Not prepared, but we were thinking of doing so.
Mr Francis Seow: Anyway, the $300,000 was practically safe in the kitty if you could get the coroner’s formal findings?
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: And with that end in view, you badgered your counsel to chase after the coroner. Isn’t that correct?
Sunny Ang: I didn’t badger: the solicitor badgered.
Mr Francis Seow: On your instructions?
Sunny Ang: I gave instructions but he did it by himself.
Ang admitted he went to five different lawyers before Mr Lim of Lim and Lee advised him to take up civil proceedings.
Mr Francis Seow: Because of the coroner’s failure to hold an inquiry for which you had hoped?
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: Therefore you forced the pace by taking up civil proceedings?
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: In the meanwhile you read up various aspects of insurance law?
Ang said he had made many trips to the High Court Library to read up law, insurance law and other matters. He told crown counsel he did not know that the insurance companies were going to resist his probate action. “This motion you were taking out to presume Jenny’s death?”
“I did not know,” said Sunny Ang.
Ang told crown counsel that he knew papers had been served on the companies but did not know that the companies intended to contest the proceedings. He denied that he could short-circuit these proceedings with a compromise plan.
Mr Francis Seow: Did you discuss this compromise plan with any of your counsel?
Sunny Ang: Yes. But after the civil proceedings started.
Mr Francis Seow: What was the compromise plan?
Sunny Ang: We would settle for a lesser amount, provided they did not contest the claim.
Ang denied he rang up Rutherford of Edward Lumley and Company with the intention of discussing the compromise plan.
Mr Francis Seow: Do you recognize this red book? (Handing it to Ang.)
Sunny Ang: Yes, it’s my diary, for 1964.
Mr Francis Seow: 27 May. You have a note there: ‘Ring Rutherford’. Is that not so?
Sunny Ang: No. ‘Ring up Richard, good.’
His Lordship: Ring up Richard?
Sunny Ang: No, the letter ‘R’. It stands for Richard, my brother.
His Lordship: Ring up?
Sunny Ang: Either ‘food’ or ‘good’. There is an ‘R’ and a dash.
Mr Francis Seow: I suggest to you that this is an abbreviation which you use for Rutherford? ‘R—ford’?
Sunny Ang: I do not think so.
Mr Francis Seow: Now, look at the entry for 28 May, the next day. Isn’t there an entry to the effect: ‘Ring up Rutherford’, which you spell ‘Ruth’d’?
Sunny Ang: No.
Mr Francis Seow: What is it then?
Sunny Ang: I don’t know. If I had abbreviated Rutherford into, as you say, ‘R—ford’ I would have stuck to the same one.
His Lordship: How do you abbreviate ‘Rutherford’?
Sunny Ang: I don’t abbreviate ‘Rutherford’.
His Lordship: In your diary do you always write ‘Rutherford’ in full?
Sunny Ang: I don’t know. I never had the opportunity to write it in the diary.
His Lordship. What do you say that entry is then? Tell me. It is in your handwriting, in your diary. Tell me what it is.
Sunny Ang: I wouldn’t know. Sometimes I write things, and, for the life of me, I can’t say what they are.
His Lordship: Well, you had better try now, for the life of you. What do you think that is?
Sunny Ang: I don’t know. Neither can I say.
Mr Francis Seow: Now look at the entry for 2 June 1964. Isn’t that ‘Ring up Rutherford’?
Sunny Ang: It isn’t.
Mr Francis Seow: To whom does that refer?
Sunny Ang: To a friend of mine.
Mr Francis Seow: Who is that?
Sunny Ang: It is a girl.
His Lordship: What is her full name and address?
Sunny Ang: She lives in Kuala Lumpur.
His Lordship: What is her full name?
Sunny Ang: Ruth Tan.
Mr Francis Seow: What is her address in Kuala Lumpur?
Sunny Ang: I wouldn’t know.
Mr Francis Seow: What is her telephone number?
Sunny Ang: I don’t know. But I know where she lives.
Mr Francis Seow: Look at the entry for 4 June 1964. Is that not ‘Ring up Rutherford’?
Sunny Ang: It is ‘Ring up Ruth again’.
Mr Francis Seow: On one page is ‘Ring up Ruth’. And on the opposite page ‘Ring up Ruth. Not in desk. Enroute to UK.’
His Lordship: Doesn’t that suggest to you that is Mr Rutherford?
Sunny Ang: It does not.
His Lordship: What does it suggest? That Ruth Tan has gone to UK for a holiday is that it?
Sunny Ang: I don’t know. It says ‘On leave in the UK’.
His Lordship: You don’t know what the di
ary means?
Mr Francis Seow: I put it to you that it refers to Mr Rutherford who, you were told, was on leave in theUnited Kingdom?
Sunny Ang: No.
Sunny Ang, questioned about a telephone call to McDougall, the then acting manager of Edward Lumley and Sons, who took over while Rutherford was in the United Kingdom, denied he made the call or suggested to McDougall that he was prepared to swear an affidavit that Jenny was not a chicken farm proprietress if the company were prepared to settle for less. “Right. What was this compromise plan of yours?” asked Mr Francis Seow.
“Just to settle for a lesser amount,” said Sunny Ang.
Ang was asked to comment on the fitting of washers to the tank, produced in court, which Ang said leaked on 27 August 1963, thus preventing him from going down to search for Jenny. He denied that he had loosened it deliberately so that there would be a leak for Yusuf’s benefit.
His Lordship: You saw Henderson fix the washer into this tank and there was no leak at all?
Sunny Ang: Yes.
His Lordship: Using this improvised washer which you made on the boat on the day in question?
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: Can you explain why it did not leak?
Sunny Ang: This is quite impertinent. For the same reason as Mr Henderson would not be able to explain why his washer leaked.
Mr Francis Seow: I’m asking you about the particular washer, which was cut and improvised on the day you did not go down into the sea, because you said that the tank leaked.
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: Now, using that same washer on the same tank and the same regulator, the tank leaked. Can you explain why?
His Lordship: Apparently it leaked on 27 August 1963, but not two days ago.
Sunny Ang: Many—a few reasons.
His Lordship: Let’s have them.
Ang said the washer may not have been put in properly that day. It might not have been clamped sufficiently tight. There might have been dirt on the washer.
Replying to further questions by crown counsel, Sunny Ang said he first met Jenny by accident near the coroner’s court. He did not know her then. He agreed in response to cross-examination that he had only known her three months before she disappeared. He told the judge that it had taken him 15 years to become a good swimmer. He said he taught Jenny to swim and skin-dive in a dozen lessons spread over two months. She learned to scuba-dive at the same time. He was questioned by crown counsel about the gloves.
Mr Francis Seow: Why is it necessary to bring gloves along with you?
Sunny Ang: Because the coral is sharp.
Mr Francis Seow: This was an expedition to collect coral?
Sunny Ang: Primarily.
Mr Francis Seow: And when Jenny went down the second time was that with the object of collecting coral?
Sunny Ang: Not she alone. Both of us would have done it together.
His Lordship: When she did go down the second time, her intention was to collect coral?
Sunny Ang. Not her intention alone, my Lord. Our intention was.
Mr Francis Seow: Her intention and your intention were to collect coral?
Sunny Ang: Our collective intention was.
His Lordship: Don’t be silly. I shall lose my patience with you.
Mr Francis Seow: Jenny had gone down first with that object?
Sunny Ang: Her object was to help me to collect coral.
Mr Francis Seow: How?
Sunny Ang: Help to carry them.
Mr Francis Seow: From the bottom of the sea?
Sunny Ang: Yes, after having chipped them off. She was supposed to help: general help.
Mr Francis Seow: And it was necessary to wear gloves for that?
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: Did she wear gloves when she went down the second time?
Sunny Ang: She did.
Mr Francis Seow: Do you recognize this bag?
Sunny Ang: Yes.
Mr Francis Seow: It was left by you at the Marine Police Station?
Mr Francis Seow: That is right.
Mr Francis Seow: What colour gloves did Jenny wear when she went down?
Sunny Ang: I can’t remember.
Mr Francis Seow: Can you explain how the two pairs of gloves are still here in the swimming bag? Would you care to look at them? (Ang. smelt the gloves.)
Sunny Ang: I can’t explain.
His Lordship: She never wore any gloves?
Sunny Ang: So far as I remember, she did.
Mr Francis Seow: Please explain how these two pairs of gloves are still in your swimming bag which you left in the Marine Police Station.
Sunny Ang: Ask the police.
His Lordship: Don’t be impertinent.
Sunny Ang: I’m sorry.
Mr Francis Seow: I’m asking you.
Sunny Ang: I cannot explain.
Mr Francis Seow: Do you agree that those two pairs of gloves are still very new? In fact they have not even touched water?
Sunny Ang: That is why I smelt them, yes.
Sunny Ang told crown counsel that he did not know about Jenny’s unhappy past until about a month after he met her.
Mr Francis Seow: Would it be fair to say that you were intimate with her in every sense of the word?
Sunny Ang: I refuse to answer the question.
His Lordship: Why?
Sunny Ang: It is irrelevant.
His Lordship: You will answer the question. You were on intimate terms with her in every sense of the term?
Sunny Ang: Yes.