A man told his 11-year-old daughter to consume sleeping pills after he had a dispute with his estranged wife in April 2018.

A district court heard that he wanted to show the woman that their marital disputes had caused the girl to feel stressed. He also wanted his wife to feel that she was at fault for not taking proper care of their child.

The girl complied and ended up losing consciousness. She was warded in KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) for more than a month.

The man later told the girl to lie to the police and say she had voluntarily consumed the pills as she wanted to kill herself.

Again, the girl complied. But four months later, she told the truth to a social worker.

The 40-year-old Singaporean man, who cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect his daughter's identity, pleaded guilty in court on Wednesday to one count each of ill-treating a child and intentionally perverting the course of justice. He also admitted to an unrelated harassment charge.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Joshua Phang said that the man lived with his daughter in a Toa Payoh flat. His wife lived in another flat in Woodlands.

On April 7, 2018, the girl sent her mother a text message as she felt unwell and asked the woman to pick her up from Toa Payoh to see a doctor. The woman told the girl to take a taxi to Woodlands, as she did not want to meet the man.

The girl then decided to stay home with her younger brother and paternal grandmother. The man phoned his wife that evening and they quarrelled.

The girl was in the living room around midnight when her father told her to retrieve a bottle of her grandmother's sleeping pills.

He then told her to consume some of the medication and she complied. When the girl lost consciousness, the man took her in a taxi to his wife's flat and called for an ambulance when they were on their way there.

He laid the girl down outside his wife's home and knocked on the door around 3.45am.

When his wife opened the door, he told the woman that she would be "answerable if anything happened to the victim". An ambulance arrived soon after and rushed the girl to KKH.

The man later visited his daughter in hospital and told her to lie to the police about the situation.

As instructed, the girl lied to Sergeant Dickson Lek on April 18, 2018, claiming that she had wanted to take her own life. The man will be sentenced on Dec 9.