Lawyers offer help to family of boy who fell from Yishun flat

Relatives of the boy looking out one of the windows of the family home on the ninth floor. PHOTO: THE NEW PAPER
A four-year-old boy was found dead at the foot of Block 165 Yishun Ring Road on Oct 6, 2015. PHOTO: THE NEW PAPER

SINGAPORE - The family of a four-year-old boy who fell to his death from a Yishun flat have been provided with the names of several lawyers who have offered to help them by the Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam.

The minister had offered to assist the family - who have not been named - in getting legal recourse over the Oct 6 accident, in which the boy fell from a ninth-floor unit window.

The boy's parents have assumed responsibility for leaving him unsupervised, but said that the contractor had not installed window grilles, which may have prevented the accident, as promised.

Mr Shangmugam said: "Regardless of responsibility, if you have agreed to put up the grille and this tragedy has occurred, after that to keep quiet and not even contact the family, that upset me. Particularly when the family tried to contact you.

"So I have said we'll help you find lawyers, and some lawyers have come forward and I've given their names to the family."

Mr Shanmugam, who is also an MP for Nee Soon GRC, attended its first mass tree planting event on Sunday along with fellow MPs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, Lee Bee Wah, Louis Ng and Henry Kwek.

Over 600 residents helped to plant some 200 trees along the newly-built Khatib Bongsu Park Connector near Yishun Ave 11 as part of this year's Clean and Green Singapore campaign.

tiffanyt@sph.com.sg

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