Mother who threw newborn son down rubbish chute in Bedok jailed for 18 months

SINGAPORE — A 26-year-old woman who gave birth to a 2.5kg full-term child at her Bedok North home in January and then threw him down the rubbish chute in a tightly knotted plastic bag – intending to kill him – has been jailed for one-and-a-half years.

On Tuesday (18 August), the judge presiding over the case rejected the culprit’s plea for a probation sentence. District Judge Salina Ishak noted the seriousness of the offence despite the baby emerging unscathed.

She also expressed reservations about the perpetrator not being aware that she was carrying a child to term, which her lawyer had raised in mitigation.

The culprit, now 27, pleaded guilty at the State Courts on Tuesday to one charge of attempted culpable homicide not amounting to murder, for committing an act with the intention of causing the death of her newborn son.

The perpetrator, who has been in remand since February after she turned herself in to the authorities and has not seen the victim since disposing of him, cannot be named due to a court order to protect the victim’s identity. He is now in foster care.

The boy was found by two Bangladeshi cleaners who were clearing rubbish about three hours after the incident and had heard his faint cries.

The culprit surrendered herself at a police station a day before she was due to be interviewed by investigators and provide a DNA sample.

Culprit threw victim then went back to sleep

In the early hours of 7 January, the perpetrator felt pain in her stomach and went to the toilet at about 6am. Deputy Public Prosecutor Yan Jiakang said, “Although the accused had not had her usual menstrual cycle for many months, and did wonder whether she might be pregnant on occasion, she had chosen not to dwell on it further.”

“She claims that she was shocked after the delivery. She carried the victim out of the toilet and went to the kitchen. She took a white plastic bag and placed the victim in the bag, tying it up,” said the prosecutor.

“She realised that the victim was moving inside the plastic bag but wanted to get rid of him quickly. Immediately, she opened the door latch to the rubbish chute and with the intention to cause the victim’s death, threw the victim in the plastic bag into the rubbish chute. The accused lived in a third floor unit. Thereafter, she cleaned up all the blood in the house, took a shower and went back to sleep,” the prosecutor added.

Victim found by cleaners who heard his cries

At about 8.30am, two cleaners from Aljunied-Hougang Town Council, Patwari Shamin, 24, and Kamal Mostafa, 40, began clearing rubbish from HDB chutes along Bedok North.

Shamin pulled out the rubbish bin containing the victim, loaded it onto a motorised cart, and replaced it with an empty rubbish bin in the chute. As he closed the door to the chute, he heard the faint sound of a baby crying. He asked Mostafa whether he heard anything but Mostafa said he didn’t.

Shamin then went closer to the bin he had just put on the cart and heard the cries a little louder. “He quickly moved aside a newspaper at the top of the rubbish covering most of what was below, and saw what appeared to be a baby in a white plastic bag that had been tied up,” said DPP Yan.

“He also noticed blood on the plastic bag. Shamin and Mostafa stopped what they were doing immediately and called their supervisor, Mazumdar Mohammad Abu Taleb, to come down to the scene,” she added.

Taleb arrived soon after with property officers from Aljunied-Hougang Town Council. “They went over to the rubbish bin which had been placed on the motorised cart and observed that approximately three-quarters of the bin was filled with rubbish. They saw the baby moving in the white plastic bag and heard the sounds of his cries,” said DPP Yan.

At about 9.10am, one of the town council property officers, Mohamed Lathiff Ali Kutty, tore open the plastic bag which was tied in a dead knot and saw the victim covered in blood lying face up and crying. The officer told his colleague to call for the police and an ambulance. Lathiff lifted the baby out of the plastic bag and asked Shamin and Mostafa to find some clothing to wrap the victim and give him warmth. They found a T-shirt, shawl and other pieces of clothing for the victim, who was taken to hospital via ambulance shortly after.

The victim was found to have a fractured collarbone as a result of birth.

Culprit confessed to crime after being asked for DNA

When officers knocked on her door the next evening to ask the culprit and her family whether they knew anything about a baby being thrown into the rubbish chute, she feigned ignorance.

The next month, on 9 February, officers handed her a letter asking her to attend an interview and to undergo DNA testing. The perpetrator was scheduled to report to a police station on 14 February.

But on 13 February, she came clean to a friend, who advised her to surrender herself. The culprit walked into a police station later that day.

Culprit ‘not aware’ she was pregnant

The prosecution had sought a two-year jail term. DPP Yan said a government psychiatrist did not find the culprit to be of unsound mind or to be labouring under any mental illnesses at the time of the offence; she later had post-partum depression.

The perpetrator also had the presence of mind to clean up the blood after disposing of the child. She also did not come clean when policemen conducted door-to-door searches, the prosecutor noted.

But defence lawyer Arias Lim played down the severity of the culprit’s crime. She had missed her period but was not aware that she was pregnant and had gone to the toilet only to have the baby fall out of her, said the lawyer.

The judge, however, expressed her reservations about the perpetrator’s ignorance of her pregnancy.

In sentencing, District Judge Salina Ishak also noted, among other things, that the victim was vulnerable and depended solely on the perpetrator. He was also thrown from a height of three-storeys into a dangerous and unsanitary area, exposing him to risk of being crushed by falling objects, or infection and disease.

The dead-knot on the plastic bag also put him at risk of dying from suffocation. And the culprit tried to cover up her crime and did not initially confess to the cops who were at her door.

It was also fortunate that the baby did not suffer from any serious or permanent injuries, said the judge.

The culprit showed little expression throughout the court hearing, even as her sentence was passed. She appeared in court via video-link from Changi Women’s Prison. Her sentence was backdated to the date of her remand on 15 February.

For her offence, she could have been jailed for up to seven years and also fined.

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