Couple gets 27-year jail term over brutal killing of five-year-old son

A Singapore court has handed down 27-year imprisonment each to a mother and father after finding them guilty of keeping their five-year-old son in a cat cage before scalding him to death. The court also awarded 24 lashes to the minor boy’s father.

According to the details Ridzuan Mega Abdul Rahman and his wife had kept their five-year-old son in a cat cage and tortured with heated spoons and pliers for months before he died three years ago. They repeatedly scolded the minor boy in boiling water at their family home.

Mother Azlin Arujunah will serve an extra year in prison in lieu of caning after the judge declared they were equally to blame for the boy’s death.

Prosecutors have described the case, which was heard at Singapore’s High Court,  as ‘one of the worst cases of child abuse’, Mail Online reported.

The trial, which began on November 12, heard how their five-year-old son had died in October 2016 after being scalded by 198F (92C) water which had caused burns to 75 per cent of his body.

In total the couple scalded the boy with hot water on four occasions between October 15 and 22, 2016, at their one-bedroom apartment in Toa Payoh, Singapore.

On one occasion, the boy yelled ‘are you crazy or what?,’ which angered the parents into dousing him with more steaming liquid, prosecutors said.

On the day of his death, October 22, 2016, the boy was allegedly confined to a cat cage.

His mother wanted to bathe him but the child refused. His was called to discipline him and he poured a flood of hot water over his calf and back, the court heard.

The boy then toppled forward and stopped moving.

Rather than immediately seeking medical attention, the parents waited six hours to take the boy to the hospital.

His death was caused by blows to the head and a deluge of 198F water poured over his back and calves, prosecutors said.

He had a fracture to his nose and bruising on his limbs, scalp and lips as well as his gums being torn, the pathologist said.

The child, who has not been named due to a court order, died just a day after he was admitted to hospital.

A foster family had taken the boy in shortly after his birth in 2011 but he later returned to his biological parents in 2015.

The pair, who are unemployed and have other children, also confined the child to a pet cage, pinched him with a pair of pliers, hit him with a broom and burned his palm with a heated spoon.

The cage measured just 91cm long, 58cm wide and 70cm tall, the Straits Times reported.

During the sentencing, Justice Valerie Thean described confining the boy to a cage as ‘extremely cruel’.   Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Wen Hsien said the boy had suffered a ‘fate worse than death’.