The guru of a Singapore sect was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison on Wednesday for extorting fortunes from her followers and punishing those who disobeyed her by making them eat feces or pulling out their teeth.
According to the court judgment, Woo May Hoe, a 54-year-old Singaporean, had persuaded around 30 people that she was a goddess.
She had taken nearly 14 million Singapore dollars (9.4 million euros) from her followers over several years by claiming that this money would be used to erase their “bad karma”.
She claimed that these sums were sent to a spiritual figure in India called Sri Sakthi Narayani Amma or that they were invested in the construction of new temples.
According to the CNA news channel, followers who disobeyed him were beaten with a cane or forced to eat human excrement. Some had their teeth pulled out with pliers or stabbed with scissors. Woo May Hoe also used around ten of them as his personal slaves.
“The defendant’s actions completely shattered the lives of her followers, leaving them in a dire financial situation and causing permanent physical disability for some of them,” prosecutors said in their findings.
