Teen gets probation after impregnating 15-year-old girlfriend, instigating her to bury stillborn child

SINGAPORE: An 18-year-old boy was sentenced to probation by a district court on Wednesday (Feb 7) for having sex with his underage classmate and instigating her to bury their stillborn child.

The boy was 14 and the girl 15 when she got pregnant. They tried to abort the foetus in multiple home-made ways but failed and the girl delivered a stillborn child about six months into her pregnancy.

The boy was handed 21 months' supervised probation for his offences. He also has to perform 100 hours of community service, and his Internet-enabled devices have to be monitored and checked by his parents and his probation officer.

His parents furnished a bond of S$5,000 (US$3,700) to ensure his good behaviour during his probation, during which he has to remain indoors from 10pm to 6am every night unless granted a variation.

The girl, who buried the body in her garden and sat there to grieve her child from time to time, was given a conditional warning for her involvement in the case.

THE CASE

The court heard at the boy's guilty plea hearing that the couple began dating in 2020 and had sex at the boy's home.

Finding it difficult to buy protection at his age, the boy did not use contraceptives.

In January 2021, the girl began suspecting she was pregnant and got her boyfriend to buy a test kit online.

When she tested positive, she told her boyfriend but they did not tell their families.

They searched online for ways to abort the foetus and tried various methods including having the boy punch and knee the girl's stomach.

The girl went into labour at home on Jun 10, 2021, while on video call with her boyfriend. She was alone in her bedroom when she delivered a stillborn son past midnight on Jun 11.

The offender asked her to cut the placenta into small pieces, flush it away and bury the foetus. The girl first wrapped the baby in newspaper and put it in a cabinet, but buried it in the garden of her home after her boyfriend's warning that it was risky to keep it in the house.

The couple broke up in March 2022. The girl's mother found out what happened after questioning her unusually quiet daughter and the police recovered the buried body.

In defence lawyers Choo Si Sen and Choo Yean Lin's mitigation plea, they said their client had committed the offences in the spur of the moment due to his immaturity.

He wants to move on with his life, they said.

The penalties for abetting the concealment of a child's birth is two years' maximum jail, a fine, or both.

For sexual penetration of a minor, an offender can be jailed for up to 20 years, fined or caned.