On 14 August 1985, Justice Lai, together with High Court judge Abdul Wahab Ghows sentenced 21-year-old former National Serviceman Sek Kim Wah to death for his participation in the 1983 Andrew Road triple murders. In this case, Sek Kim Wah, then 19 years old, together with his accomplice, 19-year-old Malaysian Nyu Kok Meng, barged into a bungalow in Andrew Road while armed with a rifle he stole from the military camp; he robbed 61-year-old businessman Robert Tay Bak Hong, the owner of the bungalow, and took him hostage with four others - Tay's 40-year-old wife Annie Tay, Tay's 10-year-old youngest daughter Dawn, Dawn's tuition teacher Tang So Ha and the Tay family's Filipino maid Jovita S. Virador - in the bungalow. After robbing the family, Sek proceeded to murder Tay, his wife and maid; his accomplice Nyu witnessed Sek's monstrous acts and decided to arm himself with the rifle and lock himself inside the room with Dawn and her tutor, protecting them from Sek, who was bent on killing both of them too. After he could not reach them, Sek left the bungalow. Nyu allowed the tutor and Dawn to escape the bungalow when the coast is clear; he tried to commit suicide but failed as he did not know how to use the rifle, thus he left the bungalow too. Police were contacted and subsequently, they arrested Sek while Nyu surrendered himself a few days later. Nyu was later given life imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane in a separate trial for armed robbery under the Arms Offences Act. During sentencing, Justice Lai, who delivered the verdict, rejected Sek's defence of diminished responsibility (he claimed that he suffered from anti-social personality disorder and psychopathic personality disorder which diminished his responsibility of his crimes) and found him in full control of his faculties at the time of the killing. Sek Kim Wah, who was later found to be also responsible for an unrelated case of an unsolved double murder at Seletar Reservoir, was hanged on 9 December 1988 after the dismissal of his appeal against the conviction and sentence.