A former Kinderland preschool Mandarin teacher, Lin Min, 35, was sentenced to one year, five months and two weeks’ jail on 13 March 2025 for ill-treating several children under her care.
The Singaporean had earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of ill-treating a child, with three other similar charges taken into consideration during sentencing.
Force-Feeding and Physical Abuse of Young Children
The case, which made headlines in 2023 when videos of the abuse were uploaded on social media, involved four children aged between one and three years old at the time of the incidents.
Lin began working as a preschool teacher in March 2020.
One victim, a girl who was one year and 10 months old, was force-fed water in June 2023 after Lin noticed her water bottle was full.
When the child refused to drink, Lin grabbed her by the arms, pushed her down on the floor, and held her mouth open by squeezing her cheeks while pouring water into her mouth.
The incident was recorded by a colleague. In the video, the child could be heard crying, coughing and choking.
The girl’s parents were informed about the ill-treatment in August 2023.
According to The Straits Times, they told police that their daughter would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night crying “no” and saying “bye bye, lao shi (teacher in Mandarin)”, referring to Lin.
Her parents believed the little girl wanted her teacher to “go away” when she uttered those words.
In the same month, Lin also ill-treated a boy who was two years and five months old. When he refused to drink water, Lin grabbed him by both arms, turned him around and pushed him down on the floor.
The boy screamed and struggled but broke free and sat up. Lin was caught on video saying in Mandarin that the boy was able to crawl quickly before grabbing him again and pushing him onto the floor at least two more times.
When the boy broke free, Lin told him that he could “go to Japan and take part in sumo wrestling”.
Three days later, Lin again forced the same boy to drink water by grabbing him by the forehead and holding his head back while forcing water into his mouth.
The boy screamed and struggled throughout the ordeal. His parents were notified of the abuse in August 2023 and learned of the extent of Lin’s actions only when they saw videos of their son being abused.
They observed that their son did not like strangers touching him around his head and back, and would sometimes cry and say he did not want to go to school.
Judicial Decision and Sentencing Considerations
District Judge John Ng rejected the defence’s argument that Lin had the welfare of the children in mind and that the offences occurred due to overzealousness.
The judge noted that while there was low physical harm, the psychological trauma caused to the victims, their parents, and other children at the childcare centre who witnessed the incidents could not be overlooked.
He factored in the full sentencing discount for Lin’s guilty plea and her lack of criminal history. The judge also took into account the two weeks that Lin was remanded in the Institute of Mental Health in 2023.
After sentencing, Lin asked through her lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan to defer the start of her jail term for a week, saying she needed to make arrangements for her child who is “needy and quite attached to her”.
Lin’s bail was set at S$15,000 on 13 March, and she is expected to begin serving her sentence on 21 March.
Following the incidents, Lin was fired from Kinderland and barred from working in the preschool sector. For ill-treating a child, she could have been jailed for up to eight years, and/or fined up to S$8,000.
The names of the victims and the specific location of the offences cannot be revealed due to a gag order.
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