Woman, 26, charged with abandoning baby in Bedok
[UPDATE: Woman charged in court on Saturday (15 February), 9am]
SINGAPORE - A 26-year-old woman has been charged in court with abandoning a newborn in January.
The woman, who cannot be named due to a gag order, has been accused of throwing the child, at around 6.15am, into the rubbish chute from a low-level unit of the block. The court heard that she had the intention of wholly abandoning the baby.
News of the infant’s discovery made headlines on 7 January after he was found by cleaners who heard his cries, which came from a rubbish chute at Block 534 Bedok North Street 3. They found him wrapped in a bloodstained plastic bag. He had no injuries and was in a stable condition.
Police said, in a press release, that through ground investigations with the aid of police cameras and CCTV footage provided by residents and other businesses in the neighbourhood, it established the identity of the Singaporean woman believed to be the baby's mother.
She was arrested on Thursday. Investigations are underway to establish the identity of the infant's father.
If convicted of the exposure and abandonment of a child under 12, she faces a jail term of up to seven years, a fine, or both.
The case will be mentioned in court again on 28 February.
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