In a heart-wrenching incident, a woman was charged in court on Aug. 1, 2023, for a disturbing act of ill-treating her four children by splashing hot water on them, resulting in the kids suffering about 10% of burn on their body.
A gag order has also been issued preventing the woman’s name from being published, in order to protect the identity of the victims.
What happened?
On Jul. 2, 2022, between 6 am and 9:34 am in a Tampines HDB unit, the woman allegedly splashed hot water on her four children, one son, and three daughters, aged between eight and 11.
The children suffered superficial partial-thickness burns, ranging from 1 percent to 10 percent of their total body surface area. The 10-year-old daughter bore the most serious injuries with burns on her left arm, left hemi-abdomen, left thigh, and right thigh. The severity of the injuries underscores the brutality of the act.
As a consequence of her actions, the woman faces four charges under the Children and Young Persons Act.
Court records revealed that the woman and her husband have since divorced each other, and the children are now staying at a shelter for children.
If convicted, she could face a jail term of up to eight years, a maximum fine of S$8,000, or both.
Other similar cases
A 41-year-old woman in Singapore stabbed her son with a knife after being angry that he had gone into her room without permission to use her phone, according to Channel NewsAsia.
The boy was bleeding profusely after the stabbing and he then went into his bedroom where he then called the police for help.
The woman, who cannot be identified because of a court order, was sentenced on 17 May to 2 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon on a minor.
What happened?
On the morning of 6 November 2021, the victim went into his mother’s room and took her spare phone to play, despite his mother telling him not to go into her room.
He ignored her instructions and continued playing with her phone, and the angry mother then went into the kitchen to grab a knife that measured 21cm long, before heading into her room with it.
Her son was under the blankets and lying down on the bed at the time, and she then pulled the blanket off of him before moving her hand (which was holding onto the knife) in a stabbing motion.
The boy ended up being cut on his thigh as he bled out and was crying in pain, before fleeing to his room and locking the door.
He then called the police for help, telling them that he had been stabbed by his mother with a kitchen knife.
He was subsequently conveyed to the hospital with an open wound before being discharged about a few weeks later after the incident.