A 14-year-old girl in Singapore, identified as “Ella” in court documents, pleaded guilty to 4 charges that included cheating and theft, as well as participating in risky behaviour such as drinking, vaping and engaging in obscene behaviour.
Her parents were found by the judge to be inconsistent in their parenting methods and deemed them not fit to supervise the girl’s rehabilitation, and she was sentenced on 6 April by a youth court to 21 months in the Singapore Girls’ Home – 5 other charges were considered during her sentencing.
According to a report by Channel NewsAsia, Ella had pleaded guilty to 4 charges including stealing cosmetic products from Watsons, and scamming other people on Carousell by posting listings but not delivering the goods.
She was also part of a group that attacked someone with a knuckle duster.
Her parents had contacted the Singapore Children’s Society back on 24 February last year, applying for the pre-Family Guidance Order (FGO) regime after she had broken a number of laws.
The organisation screened the 14-year-old girl and found that she had engaged in a few risky behaviours that included:
- Underaged smoking and vaping
- Consuming alcohol
- Obscene behaviour
- Associating with negative influences
- Staying away from home
- Going home late
The organisation found that Ella’s parents were inconsistent in their parenting, with the mother being open to professional advice and making an effort to impose discipline and routine on the girl, while the father was often switching between being strict and permissive.
The family was subsequently referred to another social service agency for therapy sessions but the girl failed to show up thrice without valid reasons.
She was also not interested in working on her studies and associated with the negative influences in her life because she placed more emphasis on having fun instead, straying away from her home for up to a week.
At the time, her parents were also going through a divorce, resulting in increased difficulties in managing their out-of-hand daughter.
The father also suddenly decided against applying for the FGO because Ella promised to go to school and abide by the curfew, but failed to keep her promises, with her behaviour getting worse instead – she allegedly posted photos of herself with love bites and tried to find a sugar daddy online.
Ella was charged in August 2022 and her mother posted bail for her before withdrawing herself as the bailor less than a month later, decided instead to send her to the Girls’ Home after she found 50 canisters of butane gas in her room.
Her father then posted bail for her instead and enabled Ella to go back to her old ways, with the mother later finding even more butane gas in her room.
She was then remanded at the Girls’ Home after having her bail nullified by the court in October 2022 but gave her another chance to be bailed out with a higher bail amount, provided she followed the stricter curfew hours.
However, she breached the bail conditions once again and ran away from home.
The judge noted that Ella had been referred to CPS 6 times last year and was a victim of dating violence while dating her ex-boyfriend, and she was also physically punished at home, where her father was seen on CCTV pulling her hair, kicking her stomach, slapping and cursing at her.
The mother then applied for a personal protection order and domestic exclusion, with proceedings for those applications still ongoing.
The father appealed against his daughter’s sentence to the Girls’ Home and asked for probation instead, saying that he will supervise her and chaperone her personally to and from school; however, it was rejected by the court, with the judge noting that Ella was non-receptive to community-based programmes.