Parents face death penalty for ‘torturing son, 5, to death with boiling water while caged in cat box for being naughty’
PARENTS who allegedly killed their five-year-old boy by tipping boiling water over him face the death penalty if convicted at Singapore’s High Court.
Azlin Arujunah and Ridzuan Mega Abdul Rahman, both 27, were in the dock today facing charges of murder, after the alleged attack three years ago.
Murder carries a mandatory death penalty, or life imprisonment with caning in the former British Colony
Prosecutors said Azlin, the boy’s mum, and Ridzuan, his dad, caged the lad in a cat box and tortured him with heated spoons and pliers for months before he died.
His death was caused by blows to the head and a deluge scalding water poured over his back and calves.
In court, the prosecution’s first witness, Associate Professor Loh Tsee Foong, recounted the injuries the boy presented at the hospital.
He had second to third degree burns, over 75 per cent of his body, acute kidney injuries, dehydration, a broken nose, cuts on his face and isolated speech delay.
The child, who is cannot be named due to a court order, died just a day after he was admitted to hospital.
If found guilty, Azlin and Ridzuan could be executed at the gallows in Changi prison.
A foster family took him in shortly after his birth in 2011 but he later returned to his biological parents in 2015.
It’s reported that the abuse began a year later when the parents started to “psychologically torment the deceased in various ways”, according to Deputy Public Prosecutors Tan Wen Hsien, Daphne Lim and Li Yihong.
The prosecutors delved further into the alleged abuse, saying the parents would hit the child with their fists or a broom for even the slightest wrongdoing.
They allege that in August 2016, the boy knocked over a biscuit tin and Azlin beat him so hard that his stomach was covered in marks. He also began to hobble due to a misaligned kneecap.
The boy’s dad placed a scorching metal spoon on his palm when the child “stole” milk powder to eat, prosecutors said.
Azlin and Ridzuan scalded the boy on at least four previous occasions before his death.
On one occasion, the boy yelled “are you crazy or what?,” which irked his parents into dousing him with boiling fluid.
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On the day of his murder, October 22 2016, the boy was confined to a cat cage.
His mother wanted to bathe him but the he refused and to discipline him his dad poured a hot water over his calf and back.
The boy then toppled forward and stopped moving.
Rather than immediately seeking medical attention, they waited six hours to take the boy to hospital.
After the hospital informed the police, the parents were arrested.