10 months’ jail for childcare centre principal who repeatedly abused four-year-old pupil
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The 40-year-old woman, who cannot be identified due a court-imposed gag order, pleaded guilty to one charge of ill-treatment of a child.
PHOTO: ST FILE
- A childcare principal received 10 months' jail for repeatedly abusing a four-year-old student on November 21, 2024.
- The principal hit the boy's head, pulled his arm, and used a toy box lid to hit his head.
- She lied to the father about injuries and refused to hand over the CCTV footage of the incident.
AI generated
SINGAPORE – A childcare centre principal who abused her four-year-old pupil multiple times on a single occasion was sentenced to 10 months’ jail on April 23.
The 40-year-old woman, who cannot be identified due to a court-imposed gag order, pleaded guilty to one charge of ill-treatment of a child.
The name of the childcare centre was also redacted from court documents.
On Nov 21, 2024, the victim’s father took the boy to the childcare centre. The pupils were preparing for their graduation ceremony that day.
During the session, the boy and some other pupils were asked to sit and play with toys at a table.
The boy was seated nearest to the shelves where the toys were kept, and at some point tried to pull down a toy box without standing up.
A teacher told him to stand up to retrieve the box, but the four-year-old refused.
The centre principal, who witnessed this, walked up to the boy and hit him on the head. She then grabbed him by the left arm and tried to pull him up, but the boy refused to budge.
When she noticed the boy had peed himself, she became even more frustrated and grabbed him by the arm again and pulled him several more times.
Once the boy stood up, she hit him on the head once more. The principal then took the toy box’s plastic lid and used it to hit the boy’s head one last time before giving his head a final push.
The acts of abuse lasted for over four minutes and were captured on the centre’s CCTV, the court heard.
One of the teachers later told the principal that the boy had scratches on his left arm. After examining the boy, the principal told the teacher that she would speak to the boy’s father when he came to pick him up.
The boy’s father arrived at the centre at about 12.30pm and noticed his son had changed his uniform.
The principal told the father about the scratches on his son’s left arm, claiming that he had suffered the injuries when she tried to pull him away to prevent a box from falling on him.
She also said she could not give the father CCTV footage of the incident due to the centre’s policy.
When they returned home, the man noticed his son’s injuries were quite serious and took him to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Doctors there determined the child had suffered a non-accidental injury.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Joel Fun sought a jail term of six to eight months for the woman.
He said: “The accused, as principal (of the childcare centre), held a position of great responsibility and trust towards the children placed in her care.
“Her actions on Nov 21, 2024, constitute a shocking departure from the standards expected of a childcare professional, involving multiple acts of violence against a defenceless child who was dependent upon her care.”
For ill-treatment of a child, an offender can be fined up to $8,000, jailed for up to eight years or both.
