Couple to fight Singapore extradition

A businessman and his Singaporean personal assistant, currently held in Melbourne, are to fight an extradition request by the Asian island state which wants to question them about a double murder, a court heard yesterday.

Michael McCrea, 44, who lived in Nottingham before moving to Singapore in 1983, and Audrey Ong, 22, will contest the Singaporean application at a hearing in November, prosecutor Daniel Caporale told Melbourne magistrates.

He did not say what the defence would be in the case involving the murder of Mr McCrea's former chauffeur and an unidentified woman. Their bodies were discovered in an abandoned car on January 7.

Singaporean police want to question Mr McCrea in connection with the killings, while Ms Ong is wanted on two counts of allegedly disposing of evidence.

They both left Singapore a few days before the bodies were found. The authorities later issued an international warrant for their arrest.

Mr McCrea's wife, Brunetta, told the Australian Associated Press yesterday that her husband, who had worked as a financial services adviser in Singapore, was innocent and had himself been attacked by Singaporean gangsters who came to their flat to collect a debt from the driver, whom she said was a heavy gambler.

If extradited and convicted, Mr McCrea faces the death penalty.