Man admits to striking girlfriend’s 11-year-old child over 20 times with leather belt; girlfriend pleads guilty to allowing it

SINGAPORE — After losing his temper with his girlfriend’s daughter, a man switched from caning her to using a leather belt, striking the 11-year-old child more than 20 times on her face, arms, and legs.
Her mother was present throughout the time that the man caned and slapped the child with the belt. She also permitted the man’s actions. 
On Monday (Aug 19), the man, 36, pleaded guilty to a charge of ill-treatment of a child in his care.
The woman, 36, also pleaded guilty to a charge of knowingly permitting the ill-treatment of a child in her care. 
They cannot be named by court order to protect the victim’s identity or anything that could lead to her identification. 
The pair were taking care of the victim at that time and knew that she had special needs. Court documents stated that the victim was autistic with low support needs and she has mild fluency disorder and dyslexia. 
The victim was later diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder after the abuse.
The child first met the man in November 2019. In February 2020, the man moved in to stay with the woman and the child at their flat. There were some days when he would return to his own home. 
Deputy Public Prosecutor Niranjan Ranjakunalan said that the man’s relationship with the child was “good initially” and they were close. The child called the man “Daddy” at times. Mother and child were also close.
After the man started staying with them, he and the woman started to use a hanger to cane the child in response to what they perceived as misbehaviour by the girl.
They eventually progressed to using a cane on the child. They also looked into alternative methods of disciplining her, including asking her to write lines and getting her to face the wall and stand in one spot. 
The woman also searched online to find recommendations on how to improve the child’s behaviour.
Between June and August 2020, the man and woman caned the girl on six different occasions, sometimes together and at other times, it was just the man.
They did that when the victim did not complete her home-based learning assignment or did not wake up when her alarm for school went off, for instance. 
The woman was always present when the man caned the child and she permitted him to do so. 
On Aug 10, 2020, the man punished the child by asking her to stand while carrying her bag on her back for about half an hour because she did not want to do her homework.
The next day or so, the man caned the child on her arms and legs because of perceived misbehaviour.
The victim’s teacher, who observed the cane marks on her, scheduled to meet the mother who was available on Aug 26, 2020.
A few days before the meeting, the man caned the child after learning that the money on the child’s fare card for public transport was running out quickly and having lost her pocket money, she had asked her teachers for cash. He also heard that she was performing poorly in school.
When the child told the man that the cane would not work, he lost his temper, slapped her and retrieved his belt to hit her with it. 
There were times when the belt hit her face even though he was not aiming for her face. 
The child sustained injuries to her face, arms and legs. On Aug 24, 2020, the victim’s teacher observed extensive bruising on the victim’s arms and legs when she went to school.
The teacher spoke to the child, who told her about what the man had done. 
The child also said that she was “very scared” to return home.
The teacher then acted on this and the school called the Ministry of Social and Family Development. 
Later the same day, the girl was taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital by a child protection officer from the ministry and she was hospitalised for 10 days for her injuries. 
The next day at about 1.50am, the man was arrested by the police and the mother was arrested later at about 1.45pm.
Sentencing for the pair has been deferred to next month.
For ill-treating a child under the Children and Young Persons Act, the man can be jailed for up to eight years or fined up to S$8,000, or both.
Those found to have knowingly permitting a child to be ill-treated also face the same maximum sentence.