Probation report called for girl involved in abusing boy

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Probation report called for girl involved in abusing boy
Posted: 01 December 2011 1512 hrs

SINGAPORE: A probation report has been called for a 14-year-old girl who held her 10-year-old relative while her mother splashed hot oil on him.

The girl, her parents and two sisters aged 20 and 24, were arrested in June this year.

Channel NewsAsia understands the 46-year-old mother, who works as a cleaner, is the grand-aunt of the boy.

The court heard the boy -- who started living with the family at age four when his biological mother went to prison -- had been abused since 2009.

Early this year, the girl and her sisters complained to their mother that the boy had eaten all the food in the house, and was playing with the gas stove.

Their mother then instructed the three of them to hold the boy's arms and legs down while she heated cooking oil in a frying pan.

The woman then took off his shirt and used a ladle to splash hot oil from the frying pan onto his face and bare body.

She then told her daughters to turn the boy around, and she repeated the act on his bare back.

A medical report by Dr Sharon Wong of KK Women's and Children's Hospital revealed the boy suffered facial deformities, including multiple first-degree burns and several scars over his head and face.

The boy is currently in a welfare home.

Two other charges of voluntarily causing hurt were taken into consideration by the district judge when calling for a probation report for the girl.

The girl had abetted her mother to cause hurt to the boy on two occasions.

On the first occasion, she had held the boy down while her mother snipped his fingers with a pair of scissors.

On the second occasion, she did the same thing while her mother pressed a hot ladle against the boy's back.

In mitigation, her lawyer Mr M S Rajendran said the girl was "not thinking rationally when she was confronted with obedience towards her mother".

The court also heard the girl knew the boy was in pain and "felt sorry for him but could not bring herself to defy her mother".

Her lawyer added the girl is currently in a girls' home and is remorseful.

Her uncle and aunt have offered to take custody of her and have signed a bond ensuring her good behaviour.

Both her parents and sisters will have their cases mentioned in court on 23 December.

- CNA/wk

 

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Young boy abused and mutilated
Shin Min Daily News

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A family of five has been charged for the torture of a ten-year-old boy.

The abused boy comes from a broken family where his mother is in and out of prison and his father is nowhere to be found.

The boy never had a chance to attend school and was given to his relatives, the family of five, when he was four years old.

The boy's abuse continued for over two years between 2009 to June 2011, in three flats located at Hougang, Sengkang and Ang Mo Kio.

The family of five includes a couple and their three daughters, the youngest at only 14 years old.

In January this year at the Ang Mo Kio flat, the 14-year-old girl had discovered the boy stealing food and playing with the stove in the kitchen.

The three daughters told their mother about the boy's mischievous acts.

The furious mother (46, cleaner) ordered the three girls to hold down the boy's limbs and strip him.

Meanwhile, the woman heated a pot of oil and poured the boiling oil ladle by ladle on the boy's face and body.

The boy screamed in pain as he was scalded and blisters developed all over his body.

The woman stopped and the boy dashed screaming and crying into the bathroom.

Besides pouring boiling oil on the boy, the woman had also pressed the hot ladle on the boy's back and neck, cut his fingers with scissors, and beat the boy with a wooden stick.

Among the accused, the 14-year-old girl has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on 10 January next year.

A doctor's report has revealed that the boy suffered six first-degree burns and has been permanently disfigured by scars on his head and face.

His mouth is deformed due to scars on his left upper lip and the bridge of his nose has completely collapsed.

Source: Shin Min Daily News, 1 December 2011.