Woman gets jail for whipping 6-year-old son over 100 times with belt

SINGAPORE - A woman ordered her misbehaving six-year-old son to do a handstand before whipping him more than 100 times with a belt.

She later made a false police report, claiming that her then boyfriend had abused the child.

The woman, who pleaded guilty in August 2023 to one count of abusing her son, was sentenced to 13 months in jail on Aug 2.

One count of giving false information to a police officer was considered during sentencing.

The 33-year-old woman cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the boy's identity,

At the time of the offences in May 2020, the victim lived with his mother, his siblings, half-siblings and step-siblings, as well as the mother's then boyfriend. Court documents did not state if the boyfriend fathered the victim.

On May 11 that year, the woman decided to punish the boy at home, over acts that were not disclosed in court documents.

She ordered him to do a handstand, but he could not maintain the posture. She then kicked and slapped the boy and hit him with a belt.

In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor David Menon told the court: "The victim cried in pain, but the accused ignored his pleas for her to stop.

"In total, the accused hit the victim with a belt more than 100 times, using both the strap and the buckle."

The woman struck her son all over his body and face. Her actions were caught on a closed-circuit television camera.

The next day, she took the boy to Nanyang Neighbourhood Police Centre in Jurong and made a false report, claiming that her then boyfriend had hit the child.

A doctor at KK Women's and Children's Hospital, who examined the boy on May 13, 2020, found that he had more than 50 bruises and abrasions.

Court documents did not state how the mother's offences came to light.

On Aug 2, her bail was set at $15,000. She was ordered to surrender herself at the State Courts on Sept 2 to begin serving her sentence.

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Several child abuse cases have made the headlines in recent months.

In one case, a 44-year-old man was sentenced to 34½ years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane in April for abusing his two children, resulting in the death of his five-year-old daughter.

But on July 9, prosecutors told the High Court that he was medically certified on May 13 to be permanently unfit for caning due to conditions including a degenerative disc disease.

He now has to serve six more months behind bars in lieu of caning.

The man started ill-treating the girl and her brother, who is a year younger, in 2015.

In 2017, he punched the children on their backs. He also kicked and stamped on the girl who later died.

In another case, a 53-year-old man was sentenced to two years' jail on June 14 after he repeatedly ill-treated his 11-year-old son in 2022.

He had slapped the boy's face, causing the child's left eardrum to be perforated.

On other occasions, he punished his son by coiling a chain around either the boy's ankle or wrist before using a padlock to secure it to a fixed metal bar in the bathroom.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.