Man admits abusing toddler by choking, dunking, smothering for months until passerby confronted him

Warning: This report contains distressing details of child abuse.

SINGAPORE: Over about three months, a man abused a toddler under the age of one in horrific ways, including pushing his head into a pail of water, pressing a pillow onto his face and choking him repeatedly until the child foamed at the mouth.

The abuse came to an end only after a woman observed the man choking the child at a void deck. She confronted him before calling the police.

Investigations uncovered multiple videos of the man abusing the child, aged nine to 11 months, during the assault. The offender admitted abusing the boy due to a grudge he had against his brother-in-law, the father of the victim.

The prosecution is seeking 12 to 15 years' jail for the 32-year-old Singaporean man, while the defence is asking for eight to 10 years' jail instead.

All parties in this case cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the victim.

THE CASE

The offender was working as a paramedic with a private ambulance service at the time of the offences.

He lived in a five-room flat with his wife, his mother-in-law and a maid. The victim was the firstborn child of the offender's brother-in-law.

Around mid-2024, the victim's grandmother requested to have the victim come over to the house she shared with the offender, as she wanted to play with the child.

The grandmother, who is also the offender's mother-in-law, said the other family members in the flat could help take care of the victim. The boy then began going over and staying a few days each time.

When the boy stayed over, his grandmother and maid would look after him. The offender also helped out when he was home, playing with the boy, feeding him, putting him to sleep or taking him out for walks.

The boy went over for the first time in mid-July 2024. The offender abused him on two of the five days the boy stayed over.

On one occasion, he offered to shower the boy and placed him into a pail filled with water before he forcefully pushed his head face-down. He held the boy's head submerged in the water for about six seconds.

The boy gasped for air and resumed crying when the offender finally released his head. These acts were caught on the offender's mobile phone.

The offender's wife later dried and clothed the boy and left him alone with the offender, who was to put the child to sleep.

While the nine-month-old boy was lying face-up on the bed, the offender struck the boy's face and body multiple times with a bolster.

He took a pillow and pressed it down on the boy's face for about 10 seconds, with the child struggling and crying. The man then continued hitting the boy with a bolster and forcefully twisted the boy's wrist.

He also shook the boy forcefully up and down and slapped his face, filming all his acts.

Around mid-August 2024, the victim's grandmother called the victim's father and said she missed the child. At this time, the victim's mother was heavily pregnant with her second child.

The victim's father took the boy to stay with the offender for five days. He noticed that his son cried and did not want to stay there.

The offender abused the boy multiple times in this period, including flicking the boy's mouth and face at a void deck, slapping him forcefully seven times, holding him upside down by his leg, pinching and twisting the child's ear and choking the boy while holding him in the air by his neck.

The boy cried loudly throughout.

On another occasion, the offender inserted a clothes hanger into the back of the victim's shirt and lifted it up so that the boy was held in the air.

He walked around with the boy hanging from the hanger before dropping the toddler from height onto a mattress on the ground.

The boy continued to cry as the offender grabbed his neck and choked him for more than 10 seconds. The boy kicked and struggled, gasping for air when the offender released him.

The offender also force-fed the boy with a milk bottle containing water, causing the water to flow out of the crying boy's mouth.

On Aug 15, 2024, the man took the boy into his bedroom and closed the door before abusing him. He lifted the boy by his singlet and dropped him onto the bed, triggering crying.

He choked the victim with his hands for about 15 seconds, resulting in him gasping for air and appearing dazed.

The man then choked the boy again for 17 seconds while in a kneeling position, with his knee pressed down onto the victim's foot, causing the boy to start foaming at the mouth.

The boy lay motionless in a dazed condition after he was released.

The man later choked the boy into a dazed state a third time that day, holding the position for 20 seconds this time. He recorded all his acts.

Court documents contained multiple additional descriptions of the man's abuse against the boy, including smothering the boy, slapping his face, twisting his arm and punching his face.

PASSERBY SPOTS ABUSE

On Sep 15, 2024, the victim's grandmother suggested taking the victim home with her as the victim's mother had just given birth and the victim was unwell.

The next day, the offender suggested taking the boy downstairs for a walk.

He placed the boy on a metal table at the void deck and began filming himself abusing the child, who was by now 11 months old.

The man smacked the boy's head, grabbed his hair forcefully, hit the boy repeatedly and forcefully twisted his arm, causing the boy to cry out in pain.

The boy had sat up crying when the man punched him on the face, causing the toddler to fall over backwards.

The offender punched the boy repeatedly, shook his head forcefully and slapped him until he fell over.

The child was shrieking when the man smacked his mouth and choked him until he fell into a daze.

Around this time, a woman passed by with her husband and her son. She noticed the offender and the child and observed the offender's actions for a while before calling the police.

In her call, she said: "I see a man with a toddler and the way he is treating him is really rough, like abuse. He drags and shifts the kid towards him and shaking him, the kind that can cause concussion."

The woman approached the offender while taking a video. The man was choking the boy at this time.

Loudly, the woman asked what he thought he was doing. On hearing the woman, the offender immediately released his grip on the boy's neck and started patting his chest.

He claimed he was trying to put the boy to sleep.

The woman confronted the offender about what she had seen, but the man brushed her off. When the woman tried to stop him from leaving, the offender asked her what her problem was.

He said he "knew how to take care of his kid" and told her not to be "extra". He checked that the woman was not following him before returning to the flat.

The police arrived and spoke with the woman about what she saw.

They identified the offender and arrested him at the flat later that same day.

The child was taken to the hospital for medical checks. His parents were very shocked and did not know why the offender would abuse the victim.

When the victim's mother went to the hospital, she saw that her son looked terrified and kept crying. He also had no reaction when she tried to play with him or sing to him, instead looking at her blankly.

Investigations revealed multiple videos capturing the abuse on the offender's phone.

He admitted abusing the boy due to a "personal grudge" that he had against the victim's father. He also admitted that he had transferred the videos to his tablet device and would watch them whenever he was reminded of his grudge and felt angry towards the victim's father.

Details of the grudge were not revealed in open court, with the man's lawyer saying in his mitigation plea that he would not elaborate further on "the broken relationship" between the offender and his brother-in-law, as "it would serve no purpose".

SENTENCING ARGUMENTS

Deputy Public Prosecutor James Chew sought 12 to 15 years' jail for the offender, calling this an "appalling and egregious case of child abuse by the accused against his infant nephew-in-law", who was merely nine to 11 months old.

"He repeatedly tortured the victim in a cruel and inhumane way, with the abuse escalating over time," said Mr Chew. He added that the abuse inflicted pain, fear and distress and also posed significant danger to the child's life and safety.

Mr Chew cited medical reports which found it likely that the abuse had already contributed to the developmental delay in the victim in the form of moderate to severe expressive speech delay and a developmental age of 12 months, although he was 21 months old at the time of assessment.

The offender had engineered opportunities to be alone with the victim and even filmed the abuse for future consumption, Mr Chew said, calling this "calculated" and "sadistic".

The offender was represented by Mr Amarick Gill and Mr S Ramanujen from Mr Gill's eponymous law firm.

Mr Gill said in his mitigation plea that his client committed the offences because of a "visceral hatred" for the victim's father.

However, the offender conceded that regardless of any reasons, there was no justification for his actions.

In his police statements, he said he was extremely remorseful and sincerely apologised to the victim and his family.

"I'm deeply ashamed of the acts that I had done. I truly never intend to cause any harm to my nephew," said the offender. "I'm prepared and ready to face the consequences of my actions. I promise something like this would not happen again."

Mr Gill said his client was immensely grateful that the victim did not sustain any significant injury.

The offender had been diagnosed with "mixed depressive and anxiety disorder" and placed on medication, but no causal or contributory link to the offences was found.

Mr Gill said his client had "readily obliged" the victim's parents' requests for domestic helpers, bearing all costs for four maids between November 2024 and December 2025.

The offender also voluntarily paid for the victim's medical expenses and gave monthly sums of money to the victim's family.

In a letter he wrote to the court, the offender said there was no excuse for his behaviour. "I cannot undo what was happened, but I carry this regret with me always," he wrote.

"I recognise that I need to change, and I am committed to doing so," he continued.

The judge said he needed time to consider submissions. He ordered the offender to give the court copies of his bank statements in a financial circumstances order, so he can assess whether or not to make a compensation order.

The man told the court he earns S$2,000 a month as a paramedic and has no movable properties under his sole name.

Sentencing was adjourned to May.