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SINGAPORE – A former elementary school teacher physically abused her young stepson several times between 2016 and 2018, inflicting injuries such as cuts to the scalp that required stitches after she struck him with a ceramic mug.
On another occasion, the woman who quit teaching in 2013 hit her nose and caused her to bleed.
The court heard that the 44-year-old Singaporean made degrading comments and called the boy a “son of a prostitute.”
He also tore up his Good Behavior Award certificate, claiming that he didn’t deserve it.
The woman pleaded guilty Tuesday (Sept. 1) to three counts of child abuse. Two other charges for similar offenses will be considered during sentencing.
She cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the child’s identity. The court documents do not indicate whether she is still staying with her stepmother and father.
Assistant District Attorney Daphne Lim said the victim’s father had custody of the child after the divorce with the child’s biological mother.
The boy later lived with his father, stepmother and stepsister in a flat in the eastern part of Singapore.
The stepmother and the boy, who was 11 years old at the time, were at home in November 2016 when she was enraged that he did not wash his plate after eating.
She called for him to clean himself up and hit the back of his neck with a mug while he washed the plate.
When the former teacher noticed that the boy was bleeding, she told his father and the boy was taken to the KK Children’s and Women’s Hospital (KKH) the next day. It was discovered that she had three lacerations on her scalp that needed to be sutured.
DPP Lim said the police were not notified because the woman apologized to her stepson and promised that she would not beat him again.
But he broke his promise on May 19, 2017, when he repeatedly slapped the boy in the face after he didn’t remember a certain question from the English test.
After this assault, he heard a buzzing in his head and also felt the taste of blood in his mouth.
He went to a relative’s home the next day and his paternal aunt filed a police report after seeing that his nephew was injured.
She took him to the KKH and they found him with abrasions on both cheeks and a “moderate loosening” of one of his teeth.
The stepmother gave a police statement on May 22, 2017 and knew she was under investigation for child abuse.
The DPP said: “In the course of the investigations, the victim also informed the police that she loves her stepmother and does not want her to be charged in court.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) intervened and the family, including the stepmother, was referred to the Kampong Kapor Family Service Center.
They were then placed in the Safe and Strong Families (SSF) program in October 2017.
DPP Lim added, “However, the defendant and the family later disengaged from the program prematurely. She did not cooperate with the SSF workers and continued to insist that the victim was wrong and deserved discipline. “
The stepmother did not inflict physical harm on the child from May 2017 to June 2018.
Instead, she called him “son of a prostitute” and broke his award for good behavior.
Then, on July 20, 2018, he went back to his old ways and hit the boy on the nose, causing him to bleed, after he caught him lying on some housework.
A week later, she discovered that he was not attending remedial classes at school and slapped him several times. He also hit her in the face and arms with a bag and punched her in the arm.
Later, the boy’s teacher saw his injuries and alerted the vice principal of the school.
The police and MSF were then notified and the boy was taken to the KKH on July 30 of that year.
A medical report the following month indicated that he had injuries, including multiple bruises.
The stepmother is now out on $ 8,000 bail and will be sentenced on October 6.
For each count of child abuse, an offender can be jailed for up to four years and fined up to $ 4,000.
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