In Singaporean society, corporal punishment of kids in the form of slapping or caning is fairly normalised and accepted, though not without controversy.
Proponents usually talk about hitting children as teaching them discipline and other good habits in the long term.
But how far is too far in these cases?
Woman Beats Son With Belt for 10 Minutes
On 11 May 2020, at around noon, a mother and her six-year-old son were in the mother’s bedroom.
The woman and her son lived with her then-boyfriend, alongside the boy’s siblings, half-siblings, and step-siblings.
The exact number of children in the home was redacted from court documents, but several of them were in the same bedroom when this incident occurred.
At this time, the woman punished the boy for an alleged misbehaviour by punching him and, for some reason, telling him to do a handstand. She was also holding a rotan cane.
The victim attempted but could not maintain the handstand, so his mother picked up a belt and began to beat him with it. She also kicked and slapped him.
Over the course of the ten-minute beating, she struck the six-year-old with the belt over 100 times all across his body and face.
Just sit in one spot and imagine being hit for ten whole minutes with no way to stop it.
The next day, she lodged a police report at a neighbourhood police centre, lying that her boyfriend had beaten the victim up.
A doctor at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital found over 50 bruises and abrasions on the six-year-old’s body.
The woman was also examined several times by a doctor at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH). The IMH professional, Dr Lee, diagnosed the woman with adjustment disorder with depressed mood.
Adjustment disorders are mental disorders with varied symptoms but generally involve excessive reactions to stress. They typically cause negative thoughts and changes in usual behaviour.
However, Dr Lee felt that the disorder had no contributory link to the offence.
Woman Claims Remorse for Beating Son With Belt
On 17 August 2023, the 32-year-old woman pleaded guilty to one count of ill-treating a child under her care.
The beating was captured on the home’s CCTV and played in court after the media and the public were temporarily removed from the courtroom.
Nonetheless, the cries of the son as the woman beat him with the belt could be heard from outside.
The woman’s lawyer argued during mitigation that the committed offence was an attempted disciplining going too far and not sadism.
The woman also alleged being remorseful for the beating, saying that she had been “going through a difficult time” and asked for leniency.
She hoped to get a chance to become a better mother and raise her children with “tender loving care.”
The District Judge stated that the footage was hard to watch and that the woman had abused her authority and trust to use excessive force against a “particularly vulnerable” child.
However, she still acknowledged that the woman had no history of abuse with her children and found it to be an isolated incident. The judge also felt that the woman’s remorse was truthful.
The mother has now been allowed access to her son once again, although only under supervision with a child protection officer. Their relationship is said to be recovering.
With all these factors in consideration, the judge sentenced the woman to 13 months in jail on 2 August. Her sentence will begin on 2 September.
The sentencing included consideration of one count of giving false information to the police.
45% of Singapore Parents Used Physical Discipline
A study in 2021 found that nearly 45% of parents in Singapore used physical discipline on their kids in the prior year.
Corporal punishment in Singapore against children is not illegal, but the border between physical discipline and abuse is not clearly defined, with excessive and unnecessary force is counted under ill-treatment.
These cases of abuse under the guise of discipline are not too uncommon in Singapore.
In 2019, two parents were charged when they tortured and beat their five-year-old to death.
In 2022, a father “disciplined” his child by shoving chilli down his mouth, causing the four-year-old to choke to death. In this case, as with the main incident in this article, the parent did not have a history of abuse. Unfortunately, this corporal punishment still ended up in the death of a child.
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