‘Not discipline, but torment’: Accommodations manager pleads guilty to abusing 6-year-old boy

While he agreed that the offence was aggravating, the defence lawyer urged the judge to consider a report by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) that found the man suffered from adjustment disorder at the time of his offences.

“The main stressor which he faced at the time was the alleged victim’s difficult and uncooperative behaviour,” the report read.

The defence also noted that the man suffered abuse at the hands of his father and older brother as a child, and asked for a sentence that was not crushing.

In reply, the prosecution objected to the use of the man’s mental condition as a mitigating factor.

“We note that part of this reported adjustment disorder is premised on the fact that the accused himself was a victim of abuse at the hands of his father,” said Mr Koh.

But the fact that he was a victim himself should make him sympathise with other victims, rather than become an aggressor, Mr Koh argued. “He should know what he was inflicting on the victims since he himself went through it.”

Mr Koh also took issue with the claim that the offences were a result of the alleged victim’s difficult and uncooperative behaviour.

“To put it bluntly, there is a tinge of victim-blaming,” he added.

The man also pleaded guilty to making a false declaration related to hiring a foreign domestic worker to perform housekeeping duties for the accommodation.

He will return to court on Aug 21 to be sentenced.

An individual who is convicted of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to a person may be punished with a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine and caning. If the victim is below 14 years old, they could face up to twice the maximum punishment.

For ill-treating a child or a young person, the man could be sentenced to up to eight years’ jail, a fine of up to S$8,000 (US$6,200), or both.

For making a false statement in a work pass application, he could face up to 12 months’ jail, a fine of S$15,000, or both.

18 HOURS OF ABUSE

His youngest victim – the six-year-old boy – moved into the accommodation under the man’s care in January 2023. The 31-year-old would punish the boy frequently, the court heard.

Other than forcing the boy to hold a push-up position, he also made him sleep in the toilet and fed him bread and water instead of proper meals.

In the incident that led to the 46-day hospitalisation period, the man abused the boy for about 18 hours – hitting him with a hanger at least 620 times, stomping on him at least 45 times and kicking him in the ribs at least once.

At about 3.45pm on Mar 9, 2023, the man made the boy hold a push-up position while studying English.

At about 5pm, the boy cried that he was hungry. The man mocked him, did not release him from the push-up position and deliberately denied him dinner while the other students in the unit ate their meals.

The man instructed him to hold the push-up position until the next morning. At about 1.15am, the man punched and stomped on the boy while he was still in that position.

From about 2am to 7.05am, the man periodically hit the boy with a hanger. He also placed a chair on the boy and sat on it, forcing the boy to lower his body into the push-up position.

The man also made the boy urinate in a basin instead of a toilet, and when the boy was thirsty, the man told him to drink the urine instead, which he eventually did.

At about 6am, the man spoke to the boy’s father to seek permission to discipline him, without revealing that he would use physical punishment or what he had already done, the court heard.

After that, the man told the boy his parents had given him permission to discipline him and did not allow the boy to go to school on Mar 10, 2023.

At about 2.18pm that day, the man hit the boy with his hand and again ordered him to assume a push-up position. He continued stomping on the boy, and hitting him with the hanger and with his hands. He used so much force that one of the hangers broke.

By 6.05pm, the boy was weak and could not walk on his own. The man carried him to the toilet, sprayed him with water and asked him to wake up.

An hour later, the man’s aunt, who was also his employer, arrived at the unit and saw the state the boy was in. She told the man to stop physically punishing the boy, but the man continued to hit and kick him. He only stopped after his aunt carried the boy out of the toilet and away from him.

His aunt wanted to send the boy to the hospital immediately, but the man dissuaded her because he was scared and worried that he would be arrested, the court heard.

Days later, on the night of Mar 13, 2023, the woman called the boy’s parents. She brought him to the hospital early the next day, when the boy complained of breathing difficulties and was coughing badly.

Upon arriving at the hospital, he was immediately transferred to the resuscitation room and then the children’s intensive care unit, where he stayed for 15 days.

He suffered from lung injuries caused by blunt force and kidney failure, requiring kidney dialysis for nine days. The kidney failure also resulted in severe hypertension, or high blood pressure, the court heard.

The six-year-old boy also suffered from rhabdomyolysis – a muscle injury where muscles break down – and multiple rib fractures.