Judge questions whether man meant to kill 2-year-old daughter
By Ong Dai Lin, TODAY
19 January 2010
SINGAPORE: A judge has questioned if the man who allegedly killed his two-year-old daughter over cigarettes had intended to fatally injure the child.
As both the defence and prosecution teams made their closing submissions on Tuesday, Justice Lee Seiu Kin noted that the beating caused by Sallehan Allaudin did not result in any bone fractures.
In January, the 28-year-old man slapped and punched his daughter Natalie Nikie Alisyia Sallehan on her arm and back after she was found playing with his cigarettes.
The girl collapsed on the kitchen floor and died because one of her major veins, the inferior vena cava, had ruptured. This had caused blood to collect inside her heart sac and prevented the organ from pumping.
During the trial, a forensic pathologist had testified that the rupture was a "rare injury".
Justice Lee said that the man is a "loving father and it is not a case that he disliked the child".
During the proceedings, it emerged that Sallehan, who works as a cleaner on the graveyard shift, would give all of his S$800 pay to his wife. He appeared the loving family man and even bought a doll as a present for his daughter prior to the incident.
The judge also said that it is "not known" how much force is required to rupture the inferior vena cava.
However, the Deputy Public Prosecutor argued that the point remained that the man had taken his anger out on a small girl and that it is "irrelevant" what he had intended to do. - TODAY/vm