Man who killed toddler, 3, sent back to jail for abusing boy, 6

SINGAPORE — Barely a year after his release from prison for killing his former girlfriend’s toddler, a 32-year-old man went on to abuse his new girlfriend’s six-year-old son.

The man hit the child’s face and the back of his neck, slapped his cheek and pushed his forehead, taking care to ensure no visible injuries.

But the victim’s mother saw footage of the abuse, having installed a closed-circuit television camera in the home after she read about her boyfriend’s previous jail term for culpable homicide.

At the State Courts on Thursday (6 February), the perpetrator was jailed for two years after he pleaded guilty to one charge of ill-treating a child.

The Singaporean man cannot be named due to a court-imposed gag order to protect the identity of the child. His mother is still in a relationship with the man and wrote a letter to the court urging for leniency. She had earlier tried to get the police to withdraw the case.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Jia En, however, called for a deterrent sentence. He said, “One would have imagined that the accused would have learnt his lesson, having caused the death of a young child and having served a substantial term of imprisonment.

“This unfortunately, was not the case. Barely a year after his release from prison on 26 August 2017, the accused had gone on to commit similar offences against another young victim on 16 August 2018.”

Killed three-year-old boy in 2010

On 15 December 2010, the man slapped his then-girlfriend’s son who was aged three years and 11 months a few times on his face. The woman was also his cousin, and so the victim was his nephew.

The impact of the slaps were so forceful that the boy’s head hit the wall behind him and he slid sideways to the floor. The child also bled on the lips.

The boy collapsed shortly after and the man performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him before taking him to the hospital. The child was later resuscitated and kept alive, but died from his injuries five days later.

Apart from severe brain injury, an autopsy found multiple fresh and healing injuries, including cane marks, bite marks as well as burn injuries. There were also healing bone fractures in the pelvis and thigh.

On four other occasions in November and December 2010, the man also bit the boy’s left arm and legs, placed a cigarrette lighter on his chest and legs, causing burns, and repeatedly caned his back, buttocks and limbs with a plastic clothes hanger.

In 2013, the man was jailed for a total of 10 years, with 10 strokes of the cane, for culpable homicide, two counts of ill-treating a child, and two unrelated charges of rioting and driving under disqualification. The sentence he received for culpable homicide was 8 years’ jail with five strokes of the cane.

The man’s cousin gave birth to his child in 2011 after he was arrested.

Assaulted six-year-old boy in 2018

On 26 August 2017, the man came out of prison after completing two-thirds of his backdated sentence. He got into a relationship with a 28-year-old woman and lived together with her. She was undergoing divorce proceedings and had care and control of the two children from her marriage. The victim was her younger child.

Sometime in end-July 2018, the woman suspected that the man might be harming her children. She later also saw him knocking the back of her six-year-old son’s head with force while they were out shopping for groceries. She did an online search for his name and found out about the culpable homicide case. She then installed a CCTV in the living room of her home on 3 August.

On 16 August, at about 10.15pm, the woman saw the six-year-old boy crying. When she asked him why he was crying, he only said that the man had asked him to go to sleep. Feeling that something was amiss, she checked the CCTV footage and kept the incriminating footage in five video clips on her handphone. The recordings show the man hitting the victim on the back of his neck, causing him to lurch forwards.

The man also grabbed the victim by the neck to forcefully swing him around to face him. He then used his handphone flashlight to check the boy’s face for any visible injuries, before berating him and slapping his cheek twice. The impact caused the victim to lunge to his right.

The culprit also used his palm to forcefully push the victim on the forehead, causing him to lurch backwards by a few steps. The perpetrator also clenched his fist and used his knuckles to hit the victim’s face in between his eyes, causing his head to violently lurch backwards.

When confronted by the victim’s mother, the man initially claimed that he could not remember the incident. He also deleted the CCTV footage, but police investigators were able to retrieve the video clips from the woman’s phone. The woman had gone to make a police report about a week after the incident, on 25 August.

Man a father figure, says victim’s mother

DPP Tay said, “The accused previously caused the death of a three-year-old child and was duly punished for this offence (along with the child abuse offences perpetrated against the same victim). Unfortunately, it appears that the only lesson the accused has learnt is to be more deliberate in covering up his heinous actions to avoid detection.”

The prosecutor called for at least two years’ jail, “to express this honourable court’s disapproval of such wanton acts of violence against children, and against all such egregious attempts to evade detection”.

Meanwhile, the man’s pro-bono lawyer Ng Shi Yang asked for no more than 18 months’ jail, saying he is “deeply remorseful for his conduct in this incident”. “He knows that he should have been better, especially in light of the tragic events of his antecedent,” the lawyer said.

On 28 August 2018, three days after making the police report, the woman spoke to a police investigator over the phone, asking to withdraw the case. She then sent an email to the investigator stating that she did not want the matter to be pursued further on 7 September.

In a letter addressed to the court on Thursday, the woman said she has been together with the man for more than two years now. “Ever since the incident, he has been continuously seeking my forgiveness and promises that he would never hurt my child again. He even came to the extent of meeting my parents to seek for forgiveness,” she wrote.

“Throughout the years that I have been with him, he has shown love and respect to me and my children. He has been such a supportive partner and has been supporting me emotionally and financially. He has always been a father figure to my children and my children love him,” she added.

The maximum punishment for ill-treating a child is a fine of up to $4,000 along with a jail term of up to four years.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

Other Singapore stories:

HSA, ICA seize over $60,000 in electronic vaporiser items

Maid jailed for repeatedly hitting 19-month-old baby with hanger

62 Korean made driverless trains to ply Jurong Region Line

Tampines woman who made religious insults gets probation

High Court dismisses SDP appeal against fake news law directives

Wuhan virus: Singapore confirms 4 new cases, including an infant