SINGAPORE: A woman who allowed her husband to physically abuse her 11-year-old daughter to death was a single mother at the age of 16, while the husband was himself a victim of child abuse, defence lawyers told the High Court on Wednesday (Jul 5).
The couple had pleaded guilty to their roles in the girl’s death – the eldest child of the woman – in February. The girl died of a head injury inflicted by her stepfather with an exercise bar in November 2020, after he got angry with her for eating too slowly.
The 28-year-old man had admitted to six charges including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, ill-treating the victim and voluntarily causing hurt with a weapon. Another 10 charges will be considered in sentencing.
The 29-year-old biological mother of the victim pleaded guilty to three charges including allowing the death of a child and voluntarily causing hurt. Another six charges will be considered in sentencing.
The offenders and the victim cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the victim’s identity.
The team of three prosecutors asked for eight to 12 years’ jail for the woman, and 14 to 17 years’ jail and at least 12 strokes of the cane for the man.
Lawyer Mohamed Muzammil Mohamed asked for six to eight years’ jail for the woman, while lawyer Ahmad Nizam Abbas is seeking a jail term between 12 years and seven months and 14 years and seven months for the man, along with eight strokes of the cane.
ARGUMENTS FOR THE WOMAN
On the woman’s offences, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Jun Chong said this was the first time an offender was being sentenced for allowing the death of a child.
The woman was well aware of the significant risk of grievous hurt being caused to her daughter, based on the duration and number of incidents, and she knew that her spouse had abused the girl from as early as February 2020.
“She did absolutely nothing to protect the deceased,” said Mr Ng.
The woman also proactively prevented her daughter’s school and the Child Protective Service from engaging the girl, who had visible bruises on her by then.
Mr Ng said the woman was not oblivious to what was happening.
“It’s more a case of – she knew what was happening, but she chose not to pay attention to what was happening,” he said.
Mr Muzammil said his client was 27 when the offences were committed, and she had a “difficult life” since she was young, dropping out of secondary school due to “constant bullying”, followed by a suicide attempt.
She also suffered abuse from her mother, who locked her in a storeroom a number of times, said the lawyer.
When his client was 16, she was impregnated by her then-boyfriend and became a single mom, delivering her eldest child who later became the victim in this case.
She took on jobs as a cashier, a clerk, a food delivery rider and an early childhood assistant teacher to support herself and her daughter.
Her first marriage was not a happy one, and she was subjected to physical and emotional abuse by her first husband, with whom she had two more children, said Mr Muzammil.
After she began dating her co-accused, she became pregnant and gave birth to her youngest child in August 2020. The couple married in April 2020 and by then the woman had become a full-time homemaker to look after her children.
She was entirely dependent on her new spouse for finances, and was busy breastfeeding her infant and looking after her young sons when her spouse was abusing her daughter, said the lawyer.
Mr Muzammil said it was clear that the person most culpable in this case is the victim’s stepfather. His client had disciplined her daughter for lying, stealing and purportedly watching pornography.
Even though the girl’s brothers had the same issue of eating slowly since they were young, their stepfather picked only on the girl.
Mr Muzammil asked for mercy so his client could reunite with her children after serving her sentence. He said she was afraid of taking her daughter to the hospital after the fatal blow with the exercise bar because of what her spouse said.
He told her about how he had been separated from his siblings and placed in homes because of abuse from his own parents. He then reminded her that her kids would be taken away from her if the authorities found out.
ARGUMENTS FOR THE MAN
When arguing about the sentence that should be imposed on the man, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jonathan Lee said that deterrence must be foremost on the court’s mind when it comes to fatal child abuse cases.
He pointed to the vulnerability of the deceased, who was not only the man’s young stepdaughter but who was underweight and smaller than her peers.
He also pointed to the nature of the attacks on the child and the man’s attempts at concealing evidence of his actions.
For the fatal blow in particular, the man had intentionally waited for the girl to be off-guard before attacking, which shows the callous nature of the attack, said Mr Lee.
“At no point did he display any concern about her wellbeing until she essentially blacked out,” he said.
Defence lawyer Ahmad Nizam Abbas said the man’s instructions to him were very clear – to keep his mitigation short, to not excuse himself for the offences and to focus on his background for the court’s understanding.
He said that when his client met the victim’s mother, she already had three kids of her own. When he married her, he not only took on the role of husband, but of stepfather.
As a young 26-year-old newlywed, the man had no experience in marriage and parenting, and was “forced” to transition from a single man to a husband and parent immediately.
“This lifelong commitment intimidated him almost immediately,” said the lawyer.
“He wanted to be a good father to his three stepchildren to take care of them to the best of his ability and know-how,” added Mr Ahmad Nizam.
He said his client had to pick up parenting skills on the go, taking care of the children’s needs, preparing meals for them, sending them to school and playing with them.
When his wife gave birth to his biological child in August 2020, he had an added responsibility, said the lawyer.
He urged the court to consider the traumatic childhood his client suffered.
“He unfortunately was a victim himself. He did not have role models he could study or follow,” said the lawyer.
He said his client’s own turbulent family history exacerbated the situation. The man was the second eldest in a family of nine children to a rubbish collector and a housewife.
There were “constant financial troubles” in the family, and the man’s father abused him and his siblings from when he was six, said the lawyer.
When his client was nine, his parents disappeared for a prolonged period of time and the Child Protective Service removed all the children from their parents’ home because of the abuse, said Mr Ahmad Nizam.
He said his client was separated from his siblings, and he was rotated from home to home without a proper family unit or the ability to form a parental connection with anyone.
Fearing that this would happen to his own children and knowing firsthand the pains of going through fostercare and the adoption system, the man tried to be an active parent himself, but his experiences “deluded” his perception of what that would be, said Mr Ahmad Nizam.
The lawyer cited a report from the Institute of Mental Health which stated that his client was more vulnerable to being an abuser himself because of his history as a victim of child abuse.
“(My client) proffers no justification nor rationale for his actions,” said the lawyer. “He accepts that his actions were deplorable and had tragic consequences. (This) is to give a background to the disciplinary methods he was exposed to.”
He read out a statement from his client, where the latter said: “Never has a day passed that I didn’t ponder and regret my horrible and disgusting acts done. I don’t blame anyone but myself, I feel very ashamed of myself, that I felt I have no more dignity.”
He said his client reads about his acts “day in and day out” using court documents and breaks down and cries in “utter regret”, knowing how his actions have affected everyone around him and brought shame to his family and society.
He said he has found solace in religion, which has “taught me to repent”, and intends to seek further education in prison.
He also hopes to reunite with his wife and children after serving his jail term, as a “more responsible father”.
Eleven of the man’s family members, including his father and his siblings, sat in the public gallery.
Justice Pang Khang Chau asked for further submissions from both sides and adjourned the case to a later date.
Of the woman’s three remaining children, two of them are with her first husband, while her youngest child has been placed with a foster family by the Child Protective Service.