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CNA
11-07-2025
- CNA
Man who killed 5-year-old daughter gets life sentence after appeal against 35-year jail term fails
SINGAPORE: A man who beat his five-year-old daughter to death had his sentence increased to life imprisonment on Friday (Jul 11) after failing in an appeal to reduce his 35-year jail term. The victim, Ayeesha, died of a head injury in 2017 after her father repeatedly smacked her in the toilet where she and her brother were confined. Her death was preceded by almost two years of abuse and neglect, which included her not having enough to eat and being kept naked in the toilet for nearly 10 months. The man, 45, cannot be named to protect the identity of his son. A judge previously allowed Ayeesha to be named "so that society may remember her". The offender had pleaded guilty to six charges: one count of culpable homicide, four counts of child abuse and one count of disposing of evidence. Twenty more charges of child abuse and lying to police officers were considered in sentencing. He originally received a sentence of 34-and-a-half years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane. He was given an additional six months' jail after being found unfit for caning due to a degenerative disc disease and disc compression. On Friday, the man's lawyers, Mr Mervyn Cheong and Ms Lim Yi Zheng of Advocatus Law, appealed for a shorter sentence of 25-and-a-half to 30 years' imprisonment. The prosecution did not appeal for a heavier punishment. However, the Court of Appeal exercised its discretion to increase the man's jail sentence for the culpable homicide charge from 15 years to life imprisonment. The three judges on the bench were Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, Justice Steven Chong and Justice Judith Prakash. They heard arguments on whether or not the man's actions placed this among the worst cases of culpable homicide in Singapore. Deputy Public Prosecutors James Chew and Maximilian Chew argued that life imprisonment would not be disproportionate to the man's culpability and the gravity of his offence. They said his offence warranted a sentence at the high end of the sentencing range for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which is punishable with life imprisonment or jail for up to 20 years with a fine and caning. The prosecutors pointed to the prolonged period of abuse and neglect that Ayeesha suffered, and the heinous and unprovoked attack by the man against his biological daughter. They said "the full extent of the cruelty perpetrated against Ayeesha" could only be understood by considering all the offending actions collectively. Starting in 2015, she was not given enough food and resorted to eating her own faeces out of hunger. She was severely undernourished, weighing just 13.2kg when she died. She had been kept in "inhumane conditions" since February 2016. "Seen in this context, the extreme physical, emotional and psychological suffering that the five-year-old girl had to endure in the period leading to, and during the fatal attack, was truly horrific and difficult to imagine," said the prosecutors. Arguing that this was not one of the worst cases of culpable homicide, Mr Cheong and Ms Lim said that the 15-year jail term already took into account all the relevant sentencing factors, and that their client had shown genuine remorse. Ayeesha and her brother were initially in foster care but returned to live with their father and his second wife in early 2015. They did not attend any school from May 2015, and were not seen by any social service case officers from around that time. Their father would often lie to social service officers that the children were staying with his relatives. The man, who was trained in martial arts, physically abused the children. He and his wife started confining them between a bookshelf and a wardrobe in February 2016. In October 2016, they moved the children to the kitchen toilet, only letting them out to be fed or when the couple wanted to use the toilet. On the night of Aug 10, 2017, Ayeesha and her brother were sleeping in the toilet when their stepmother asked them to move their legs as they had not been active the whole day. When Ayeesha did not listen, her stepmother complained to her father, who smacked her face 15 to 20 times before leaving her in the toilet. The next evening, the family realised Ayeesha had died. The man then went about covering his tracks. This included the disposal of a closed-circuit television camera and other evidence. He brought his son and Ayeesha's body to the hospital on the morning of Aug 12, 2017, and the man was arrested that afternoon. Ayeesha's stepmother faces four charges of ill-treating Ayeesha and her brother and two charges of giving false information to a police officer.
Straits Times
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Man who killed 5-year-old daughter gets life sentence after he appeals against 35-year jail term
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The men confined his two children naked in the toilet for nearly 10 months, from October 2016 to Aug 11, 2017. SINGAPORE - A man who is serving a 35-year jail term for abusing his two children, resulting in the death of his five-year-old daughter, had his sentence increased to life imprisonment on July 11, after his appeal for a reduced term failed. The 45-year-old man had appealed for a sentence of between 25½ and 30 years' jail. Instead, the Court of Appeal exercised its discretion to enhance the individual sentence for the man's most serious charge, one of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, from the original 15 years to life imprisonment. The man cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the identity of his son, who survived the abuse. While the prosecution did not file an appeal against the man's original sentence, the court had asked parties to prepare submissions on whether this case was 'one of the worst type of cases of culpable homicide' which warranted life imprisonment. The man's lawyer, Mr Mervyn Cheong, argued that a life term was not warranted. He noted that neither the prosecution nor the defence appealed against the individual sentence for the culpable homicide charge, and that 35 years was a lengthy sentence. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. 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The prosecutor noted that the court has the discretion to enhance an offender's sentence in the absence of an appeal by the prosecution if the interests of justice call for such an increase. The three-judge court, led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, dismissed the man's appeal, rejecting his arguments that he has shown remorse and that he should be given a sentencing discount for pleading guilty. Chief Justice Menon said the court will issue detailed grounds to explain its decision in due course. The judges, who also included Justice Steven Chong and Justice Judith Prakash, also imposed 12 strokes of the cane, which was part of the original sentence. However, the man will not be caned as he was medically certified in 2024 to be permanently unfit for caning, on account of his degenerative disc disease and a disc compression. The High Court had allowed the name of his daughter, Ayeesha, to be published. Ayeesha was five years old when she died from a head injury after her father rained blows to her face. Her brother was then four. The man had Ayeeseha and her brother from his previous marriage. He has three other children with his second wife, whom he married in 2015. The man, who had martial arts training, started abusing Ayeesha and her brother in 2015 . He hit the two children and left them malnourished. From February to October 2016, the couple confined the children in a 'naughty corner', which was barricaded with a bookshelf and a wardrobe to keep them there. The children were let out only for meals and baths. The man also installed a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera to monitor the children. The children were confined naked in the toilet for nearly 10 months, from October 2016 to Aug 11, 2017. On the night of Aug 10, 2017, after his wife complained to him about Ayeesha, the man smacked the girl 15 to 20 times on her face. Later that night, he punched the children on their backs, kicked and stamped on Ayeesha, and slapped her face. That evening, the man's wife realised that Ayeesha was unresponsive. In the early hours of Aug 12, 2017, he threw away evidence, including the CCTV camera, into different rubbish bins at nearby blocks. He then took his son and Ayeesha's body in a pram to Singapore General Hospital. After Ayeesha was pronounced dead by the doctors, the man lied to the police that she had hit her head on a slide at a playground. It was only when he was confronted with footage from police surveillance cameras that he admitted to these lies. The man was originally charged with murder, and went on trial in the High Court in July 2023. In the midst of the trial, he accepted the prosecution's offer to amend the charge. In April 2024, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide for Ayeesha's death, four charges of child abuse, and a charge of disposing of evidence. Another 20 charges, for abusing the two children and for lying to the police, were taken into consideration. He was sentenced to 34½ years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane. In July 2024, after he was found unfit for caning, the High Court added six months to the jail term in lieu of caning. The case is pending against the man's wife, who has been charged with abusing her two stepchildren . The 34-year-old woman was handed multiple charges on Jan 7, 2025, including four counts of ill-treating a child.
