Defence grills stepmother of 5-year-old girl allegedly murdered by father

He put it to the man’s wife that she was shown pushing the bookshelf to close up the naughty corner space, but she disagreed, saying she did not know why she did that.

The lawyer pointed out that the woman was shown resting her hand on the bookshelf while her husband was beating the girl up.

“My instructions are that during that period of time, you were complaining to (the accused) about (the deceased’s) behaviour. Do you agree or disagree?” asked Mr Cheong.

“I cannot remember,” answered the woman.

“At that point in time, did you think about comforting (the deceased)?” asked the lawyer.

“I cannot remember anything on that day. What I did, or what I said, or what I think,” said the woman.

“Because you walked away, you actually did not feel sorry for (the deceased) at all,” asserted the lawyer.

“My answer is still – I don’t know. I cannot remember how I feel,” replied the woman.

The lawyer then played footage where the accused reached behind him to get a cane that was resting on the bookshelf. After this, he strikes his daughter repeatedly with it.

Mr Cheong asserted that woman had walked in and out of the video frame because she was trying to pass the cane to her husband, but left when she saw that he already had it.

The woman again said she could not remember why she went in and out.

Mr Cheong then played another video clip which showed the accused pushing his daughter and son in a pram down a corridor towards his flat.

The two children were shown to be subdued, staring at their stepmother, who was filming the video and silently following instructions to sit down or stand up.

In the background, cooing sounds could be heard and the accused’s legs could be seen as he lay on a mattress. He shared that mattress with his wife and her two baby daughters.

THE WAY SHE ADDRESSED THE KIDS

In the video, the man’s wife can be heard talking to the man’s children.

She referred to the girl as “Eh” or “A”, and to the boy as “guy”.

“Why did you not call (the deceased) by her name?” asked Mr Cheong.

“On that particular day, I don’t know why. But I did call sometimes by her name,” answered the woman.

“So sometimes you call her by her name, most of the time you just refer to her as ‘eh’?” asked the lawyer.

“No. Sometimes I just … didn’t even talk to her,” answered the woman.

The woman had been shown in video footage calling her stepson “jantan”.

“The Malay word ‘jantan’ is actually a disrespectful way of referring to a male person, do you agree or disagree?” asked Mr Cheong.

“No,” replied the woman.

The lawyer also showed the woman a video of the girl playing with her milk bottle and suggested to the woman that she had taken this video to send to the accused, because she wanted him to come home and punish the girl.

The woman disagreed.

She also disagreed with the lawyer’s suggestion that she was jealous of her husband’s two kids.

The trial continues, with the first tranche set to end this Friday and resume again in September.

If convicted of murder under Section 300(c), the man can be sentenced to death, or to life imprisonment with caning.