Ah Ping Ban, a Singapore businessman who murdered his wife Annabelle Chen and dumped her body in Perth’s Swan River, has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years.
The couple’s daughter Tiffany Wan was also jailed for 4 years for attempting to cover up the crime.
Mr Ban, 69 was found guilty in September for the murder of Ms Chen, after Fremantle fisherman found her body stuffed in a suitcase floating on the river in 2016.
Ms Chen was not able to be identified until Ms Wan reported her mother missing to police, falsely telling them that she had seen her mother last walking out of their apartment and getting into a white car, driven by an Asian man.
Both Ms Wan and Mr Ban attempted to blame one another when standing trial, in a defence that the ABC reports was described as “cutthroat.”
Wan, despite claiming she had nothing to do with the disposal of the body, claimed that she had witnessed her father strike her mother with an iron paper-weight in the face during an argument about money.
The family home where the crime is thought to have taken place
She admitted to lying to police in order to conceal the crime.
Mr Ban, on the other hand, claimed that Ms Wan had killed her mother in a fight about her upcoming graduation from the University of Melbourne.
Ms Chen had already died by the time Ms Wan graduated
Mr Ban then alleged that both he and Ms Wan disposed of the body together, moving the suitcase to East Fremantle traffic bridge and filling the suitcase with ceramic tiles to weight it down before dropping it into the water.
After a week of deliberations, the jury found Mr Ban guilty of murder, with Ms Wan charged only as an accessory. She will be eligible for parole next year, but Mr Ban will be behind bars until at least 2036.
