Stepmother of 5-year-old girl allegedly murdered by father gets grilled on the stand by defence

SINGAPORE: The defence for a man standing trial for murdering his five-year-old daughter grilled his wife, who was testifying on the stand for the prosecution.

The 43-year-old man is accused of beating the girl to death in August 2017, after months of alleged abuse by confining her and her younger brother in a corner of a one-room flat, the kitchen and finally the toilet where she purportedly died.

The man's wife, who is in the midst of divorcing him, testified for the prosecution on Thursday (Jul 6), the second day of the trial, about how her husband had assaulted his two children.

Defence lawyer Mervyn Cheong opened his cross-examination of the woman by asserting that she was the one who had came up with the idea of a “naughty corner”.

This was how the two children, aged five and four at the time of the girl's death, had come to be confined in various places of the rented flat.

The woman repeatedly said that the idea had not come from her. She said she had punished her own daughter before by making her stand by the door.

She explained that if she had been the one to bring up the idea, she would have asked the kids to only stand at the door.

Mr Cheong then showed the woman a statement from the accused, where he said the children used to be confined in only a corner of the flat, bordered by a wardrobe and a bookshelf.

They would be made to raise their hands and carry items like a milk bottle or a shoe, if they were naughty and did things like throw tantrums.

In his statement, the accused said: "It was my wife's idea and it worked for her daughter from her previous marriage."

Mr Cheong then repeated his assertion to the man's wife that she had indeed told her husband about this method. She disagreed, saying she could not remember but that she knew she did not mention this idea to her husband.

"After the naughty corner was set up in the flat, did you agree to have that naughty corner there?" asked Mr Cheong. 

The woman did not understand the question, so he rephrased: "Did you tell (the accused) not to have a naughty corner?"

She said: "I don't remember."

Mr Cheong then replayed footage from the morning's session that showed the accused assaulting his daughter in the "naughty corner" when she was four years old.

He put it to the man's wife that she was shown pushing the bookshelf to close up the naughty corner space, but she disagreed, saying she did not know why she did that.

The lawyer pointed out that the woman was shown resting her hand on the bookshelf while her husband was beating the girl up.

"My instructions are that during that period of time, you were complaining to (the accused) about (the deceased's) behaviour. Do you agree or disagree?" asked Mr Cheong.

"I cannot remember," answered the woman.

"At that point in time, did you think about comforting (the deceased)?" asked the lawyer.

"I cannot remember anything on that day. What I did, or what I said, or what I think," said the woman.

"Because you walked away, you actually did not feel sorry for (the deceased) at all," asserted the lawyer.

"My answer is still - I don't know. I cannot remember how I feel," replied the woman.

The lawyer then played footage where the accused reaches behind him to get a cane that is resting on the bookshelf. After this, he strikes his daughter repeatedly with it.

Mr Cheong asserted that woman had walked in and out of the video frame because she was trying to pass the cane to her husband, but left when she saw that he already had it.

The woman again said she could not remember why she went in and out.

Mr Cheong then played another video clip which showed the accused pushing his daughter and son in a pram down a corridor towards his flat.

The two children were shown to be subdued, staring at their stepmother, who was filming the video and silently following instructions to sit down or stand up.

In the background, cooing sounds could be heard and the accused's legs could be seen as he lay on a mattress. He shared that mattress with his wife and her two baby daughters.

THE WAY SHE ADDRESSED THE KIDS

In the video, the man's wife can be heard talking to the man's children.

She referred to the girl as "Eh", and to the boy as "guy".

"Why did you not call (the deceased) by her name?" asked Mr Cheong.

"On that particular day, I don't know why. But I did call sometimes by her name," answered the woman.

"So sometimes you call her by her name, most of the time you just refer to her as 'eh'?" asked the lawyer.

"No. Sometimes I just ... didn't even talk to her," answered the woman.

The woman had been shown in video footage calling her stepson "jantan".

"The Malay word 'jantan' is actually a disrespectful way of referring to a male person, do you agree or disagree?" asked Mr Cheong.

"No," replied the woman.

The lawyer also showed the woman a video of the girl playing with her milk bottle and suggested to the woman that she had taken this video to send to the accused, because she wanted him to come home and punish the girl.

The woman disagreed.

She also disagreed with the lawyer's suggestion that she was jealous of her husband's two kids.

The trial continues, with the first tranche set to end this Friday and resume again in September.

If convicted of murder under Section 300(c), the man can be sentenced to death, or to life imprisonment with caning.