SINGAPORE – A man who is serving a 35-year jail term for abusing his two children, resulting in the death of his five-year-old daughter, had his sentence increased to life imprisonment on July 11, after his appeal for a reduced term failed.

The 45-year-old man had appealed for a sentence of between 25½ and 30 years’ jail.

Instead, the Court of Appeal exercised its discretion to enhance the individual sentence for the man’s most serious charge, one of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, from the original 15 years to life imprisonment.

The man cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the identity of his son, who survived the abuse.

While the prosecution did not file an appeal against the man’s original sentence, the court had asked parties to prepare submissions on whether this case was one of the worst types of cases of culpable homicide that warranted life imprisonment.

The man’s lawyer, Mr Mervyn Cheong, argued that a life term was not warranted.

He noted that neither the prosecution nor the defence appealed against the individual sentence for the culpable homicide charge, and that 35 years was a lengthy sentence.

Deputy Public Prosecutor James Chew said life imprisonment would not be disproportionate to the man’s culpability and the gravity of the offence, which warrants a sentence at the high end of the sentencing range.

The prosecutor noted that the court has the discretion to enhance an offender’s sentence in the absence of an appeal by the prosecution if the interests of justice call for such an increase.

The three-judge court, led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, dismissed the man’s appeal, rejecting his arguments that he has shown remorse and that he should be given a sentencing discount for pleading guilty.

Chief Justice Menon said the court will issue detailed grounds to explain its decision in due course.

The judges, who also included Justice Steven Chong and Justice Judith Prakash, also imposed 12 strokes of the cane, which were part of the original sentence.

However, the man will not be caned as he was medically certified in 2024 to be permanently unfit for caning, on account of his degenerative disc disease and a disc compression.

The High Court had allowed the name of his daughter, Ayeesha, to be published.

Ayeesha was five years old when she died from a head injury after her father rained blows to her face. Her brother was then four.

The man had Ayeeseha and her brother from his previous marriage. He has three other children with his second wife, whom he married in 2015.

The man, who had martial arts training,

started abusing Ayeesha and her brother in 2015

.

He hit the two children and left them malnourished.

From February to October 2016, the couple confined the children in a “naughty corner”, which was barricaded with a bookshelf and a wardrobe to keep them there.The children were let out only for meals and baths.

The man also installed a CCTV camera to monitor the children.

The children were confined naked in the toilet for nearly 10 months, from October 2016 to Aug 11, 2017.

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On the night of Aug 10, 2017, after his wife complained to him about Ayeesha, the man smacked the girl 15 to 20 times on her face.Later that night, he punched the children on their backs, kicked and stamped on Ayeesha, and slapped her face.That evening, the man’s wife realised that Ayeesha was unresponsive.In the early hours of Aug 12, 2017, he threw away evidence, including the CCTV camera, into different rubbish bins at nearby blocks.He then took his son and Ayeesha’s body in a pram to Singapore General Hospital.After Ayeesha was pronounced dead by the doctors, the man lied to the police that she had hit her head on a slide at a playground.It was only when he was confronted with footage from police surveillance cameras that he admitted to his lie.The man was originally charged with murder, and went on trial in the High Court in July 2023.

In the midst of the trial, he accepted the prosecution’s offer to amend the charge.In April 2024, he

pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide

for Ayeesha’s death, four charges of child abuse, and a charge of disposing of evidence. Another 20 charges, for abusing the two children and for lying to the police, were taken into consideration.

He was sentenced to 34½ years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane.

In July 2024, after he was found unfit for caning, the High Court

added six months to the jail term in lieu of caning.

The case is pending against the man’s wife, who has been

charged with abusing her two stepchildren

.

The 34-year-old woman was handed multiple charges on Jan 7, 2025, including four counts of ill-treating a child.

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