SINGAPORE, July 14 (NNN-CNA) – A Singapore couple, who repeatedly splashed hot water on their five-year-old son, until the boy died from his injuries, were sentenced to 27 years in jail, local media reported.
Ridzuan Mega Abdul Rahman, 28, was given 27 years’ imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane, while his wife, Azlin Arujunah, also 28, was also sentenced to 27 years’ in jail, with an additional one-year term, in lieu of caning, the Straits Times reported, quoting prosecutors as saying, it is “one of the worst cases of child abuse.”
The couple splashed hot water on the boy on four occasions between Oct 15 and Oct 22, 2016, at their one-room flat in Toa Payoh, and took him to hospital seven hours after he collapsed following the last incident.
The boy died from horrific scald injuries, covering about 75 percent of his body, on Oct 23, 2016.
The pair also committed other acts of abuse against the boy, including confining him to a pet cage, pinching him with a pair of pliers, hitting him with a broom and burning his palm with a heated spoon.
The unemployed couple were charged with murder, with common intention to inflict fatal scald injuries on the boy. In June, the judge acquitted the pair of murder and instead convicted them of causing grievous hurt by dangerous means for the acts of scalding.
The boy lived with another family shortly after his birth. He returned to the couple in 2015, when he was four.– NNN-CNA
