Man pleads guilty to abusing his children, including placing heated spoon on son's bare buttocks
Photo illustration of a spoon being heated over a stove. (Photo: 8world)
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SINGAPORE: A 41-year-old Singaporean man pleaded guilty on Friday (Jan 10) to two charges of abusing his children, including placing a heated spoon on his seven-year-old son’s buttocks in 2016.
He had also kicked his daughter’s shoulder in 2022, causing her to suffer a displaced right clavicular fracture.
He pleaded guilty to both charges under the Children and Young Persons Act.
One other charge – of hitting his son around his right arm with a belt sometime in 2022 – will be taken into consideration, when the case returns to court on Feb 11 for sentencing.
The man cannot be named due to gag orders prohibiting his identification and the victims’ identification.
His son and daughter are currently aged 17 and 16 respectively.
WHAT HAPPENED
At the time of the offences, the man lived together with his wife and two children in a flat.
Sometime before or in 2019, the man became unhappy with his son over school-related issues. He then took a metal spoon and heated it on the stove, before placing the spoon on the bare skin of his son’s right buttock.
This caused the boy, who was seven at the time, to suffer pain, and led to a burn and scarring.
A few years later, in June 2022, the man’s daughter was seated on the floor in the living room of the same flat.
Unhappy with his daughter, the man kicked her on her shoulder. Court documents did not state what caused his unhappiness.
As the pain from his kick persisted, the man’s wife brought the girl to a Chinese medical hall for further assessment about one week later.
There, she was advised to bring the girl to the hospital.
Upon examination at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital the next day, it was revealed that the girl had suffered a displaced right clavicular fracture, as a result of the man’s earlier act of kicking her shoulder.
The girl was discharged on the same day, with 14 days of hospitalisation leave.
The man was arrested in August that year, after he was involved in a traffic accident and interviewed by the police.
Court documents stated that Child Protection Services became involved after police investigations began, though the documents did not state how his acts had come to light.
For ill-treating a child or young person under his custody, the man could be fined up to S$8,000, jailed for up to eight years, or both.
