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Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Nov 11, 2009
Dad jailed for scalding girl
Pouring boiling water is no way to discipline 9-year-old, says judge
By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
PARENTS are entitled to discipline their children, but scalding is definitely out as a method of punishment, said a district judge on Tuesday.
District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim was passing sentence yesterday on a self-employed man who poured boiling water on his then nine-year-old daughter for lying and stealing.
The man was given an 18-month jail term and three strokes of the cane. He cannot be named, in order to protect his daughter's identity.
The judge rejected his lawyer's recommendation that a probation report be called, saying probation was inappropriate, given the aggravating facts of the case.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ang Feng Qian told the court that when the girl, a Primary 4 pupil, returned from school on the afternoon of July 10, she got a shelling from her father for lying about having to stay back in school.
He found items in her school bag that did not belong to her, among them, an exercise book. Asked for an explanation, the girl said she borrowed 50 cents from a teacher to buy it, which he found out was a lie. He filled a mug with hot water, intending to pour it on her hand as a warning against stealing again. The girl's retort - that he did not buy her what she wanted - infuriated him further.
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Nov 11, 2009
Dad jailed for scalding girl
Pouring boiling water is no way to discipline 9-year-old, says judge
By Elena Chong, Courts Correspondent
PARENTS are entitled to discipline their children, but scalding is definitely out as a method of punishment, said a district judge on Tuesday.
District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim was passing sentence yesterday on a self-employed man who poured boiling water on his then nine-year-old daughter for lying and stealing.
The man was given an 18-month jail term and three strokes of the cane. He cannot be named, in order to protect his daughter's identity.
The judge rejected his lawyer's recommendation that a probation report be called, saying probation was inappropriate, given the aggravating facts of the case.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ang Feng Qian told the court that when the girl, a Primary 4 pupil, returned from school on the afternoon of July 10, she got a shelling from her father for lying about having to stay back in school.
He found items in her school bag that did not belong to her, among them, an exercise book. Asked for an explanation, the girl said she borrowed 50 cents from a teacher to buy it, which he found out was a lie. He filled a mug with hot water, intending to pour it on her hand as a warning against stealing again. The girl's retort - that he did not buy her what she wanted - infuriated him further.
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