A 40-year-old man pleaded guilty on November 11 to three charges of ill treating a child in his custody, intentionally perverting the course of justice and using insulting language to the police.
He reportedly had an argument with his wife and got agitated, then made his 11-year-old daughter overdose on sleeping pills which resulted in her hospitalisation for over a month.
The parties involved cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim.
The man was living apart from his wife at the time of the offence in April 2018 because of marital dispute and he had custody of the victim who lived with him.
On April 7, 2018, the victim complained that she was feeling unwell and asked her mother to take her to the doctor, but her motoher didn’t want to see the accused so she asked the daughter to take a cab to her flat instead.
The accused then quarrelled with his wife over the phone.
The next day, the man told his daughter to get a btotle of sleeping pills that was meant for her grandmother and told her to consume the pills.
The girl took six pills then went to the playground outside, her father wanted to show her mother that their marital disputes were causing the daughter distress.
The accused then told his daughter to consume several more pills, which she did, and she then felt weak and sleepy afterwards, before fainting.
The girl was hospitalized soon after and diagnosed as suffering from an amitriptyline overdose.
She was warded for more than a month and her father told her to give false information to the police.
He told her to tell anyone who pressed her on what happened, that she took the pills to commit suicide.
The truth was revealed when she told social workers about the incident in August 2018.
The accused will return to court for mitigation and sentencing in December.