SINGAPORE - A recalcitrant offender whipped his son with a belt about 20 times in January, and then punched him in the abdomen in May despite a protection order prohibiting him from doing so.

The 30-year-old father was sentenced to 10 months and three weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to offences including two counts of assault involving the seven-year-old boy.

He cannot be named as there is a gag order to protect his son’s identity.

The man was convicted of an unrelated assault charge in 2015 and sentenced to a month in jail. Four years later, he was convicted of a snatch theft and sentenced to a year behind bars.

The current case happened on the afternoon of Jan 7, 2023. He flew into a rage in his Rivervale Crescent flat in Sengkang when he thought that his two sons – the victim and his younger brother – were not sleeping during their supposed nap time.

His 27-year-old wife was at work at the time, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Melissa Heng.

The father used a belt to repeatedly strike his older son on the right ear, shoulder, upper back and neck in one of the bedrooms at around 3pm that day.

He stopped the beating when the child apologised. His wife came home about two hours later and saw red marks on their son’s body.

After the boy told his mother about the assault, she made a police report.

An ambulance later took him to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, where he was found with multiple bruises on his body, including his upper back. He was given medical leave from Jan 7 to 9.

The mother then applied for an expedited order, which is a temporary personal protection order. It was granted by a district judge on Jan 10.

The DPP said the order restrained the man from using violence against his wife, the victim and his younger son.

The man was out on bail when he targeted the older son again on May 14.

DPP Heng said: “The accused insisted that the victim had homework to complete. When the victim said that he did not have any, the accused said he was lying.”

The accused then slapped the victim on his chest, face and arm, and punched him once in the abdomen, she added.

The victim’s mother alerted the police at around 3.30pm.

Officers arrested the man on May 14. He was released on bail two days later.

He continued to reoffend on July 5 after the police attended to another call from his wife that day. Details about this call were not disclosed in court documents.

When officers were talking to the offender outside his flat, a 26-year-old man came forward and asked to speak to him.

The younger man’s name has been redacted from court documents.

The officers allowed the two men to speak and they went to a nearby staircase landing.

It turned out the offender had been involved in an earlier dispute with the other man’s father. When they started exchanging blows, the officers intervened and arrested the offender after stopping the fight.

He was in a police vehicle heading towards Woodlands Division Regional Lockup when he hurled vulgarities at the officers, including asking a policeman if he wanted the offender’s leg to “fly” to his face.