Warning: This report contains distressing details of child abuse.
SINGAPORE: Over about three months, a man abused a toddler under the age of one in horrific ways, including pushing his head into a pail of water, pressing a pillow onto his face and choking him repeatedly until the child foamed at the mouth.
The abuse came to an end only after a woman observed the man choking the child at a void deck. She confronted him before calling the police.
Investigations uncovered multiple videos of the man abusing the child, aged nine to 11 months, during the assault. The offender admitted abusing the boy due to a grudge he had against his brother-in-law, the father of the victim.
The prosecution is seeking 12 to 15 years’ jail for the 32-year-old Singaporean man, while the defence is asking for eight to 10 years’ jail instead.
All parties in this case cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the victim.
THE CASE
The offender was working as a paramedic with a private ambulance service at the time of the offences.
He lived in a five-room flat with his wife, his mother-in-law and a maid. The victim was the firstborn child of the offender’s brother-in-law.
Around mid-2024, the victim’s grandmother requested to have the victim come over to the house she shared with the offender, as she wanted to play with the child.
The grandmother, who is also the offender’s mother-in-law, said the other family members in the flat could help take care of the victim. The boy then began going over and staying a few days each time.
When the boy stayed over, his grandmother and maid would look after him. The offender also helped out when he was home, playing with the boy, feeding him, putting him to sleep or taking him out for walks.
The boy went over for the first time in mid-July 2024. The offender abused him on two of the five days the boy stayed over.
On one occasion, he offered to shower the boy and placed him into a pail filled with water before he forcefully pushed his head face-down. He held the boy’s head submerged in the water for about six seconds.
The boy gasped for air and resumed crying when the offender finally released his head. These acts were caught on the offender’s mobile phone.
The offender’s wife later dried and clothed the boy and left him alone with the offender, who was to put the child to sleep.
While the nine-month-old boy was lying face-up on the bed, the offender struck the boy’s face and body multiple times with a bolster.
He took a pillow and pressed it down on the boy’s face for about 10 seconds, with the child struggling and crying. The man then continued hitting the boy with a bolster and forcefully twisted the boy’s wrist.
He also shook the boy forcefully up and down and slapped his face, filming all his acts.
Around mid-August 2024, the victim’s grandmother called the victim’s father and said she missed the child. At this time, the victim’s mother was heavily pregnant with her second child.
The victim’s father took the boy to stay with the offender for five days. He noticed that his son cried and did not want to stay there.
The offender abused the boy multiple times in this period, including flicking the boy’s mouth and face at a void deck, slapping him forcefully seven times, holding him upside down by his leg, pinching and twisting the child’s ear and choking the boy while holding him in the air by his neck.
The boy cried loudly throughout.
On another occasion, the offender inserted a clothes hanger into the back of the victim’s shirt and lifted it up so that the boy was held in the air.
He walked around with the boy hanging from the hanger before dropping the toddler from height onto a mattress on the ground.
