Chin Swee Road death: Woman gets discharge not amounting to acquittal for murder of daughter
SINGAPORE — The mother of a two-year-old girl whose remains were found in a flat at Chin Swee Road in 2019 was granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal over her murder charge on Tuesday (2 March).
This means that the prosecution will not be proceeding on the murder charge for the 32-year-old woman. However, she may still be prosecuted over the same offence should there be new developments.
The woman's lawyer had argued for a discharge amounting to an acquittal over the capital charge last month, but this was overruled by the judge. She was originally charged with causing the death of her two-year-old daughter in common intention with the girl's 31-year-old father in March 2014.
Both the woman and the man cannot be named to protect the identities of their other children.
The woman still faces eight charges under the Children and Young Persons Act for ill-treating her children. These include offences against her deceased daughter, by choosing not to provide the child with adequate medical aid in spite of the medical emergency, such that her daughter died.
She is also alleged to have hit the girl with a belt and hanger, slapped her face and thigh, flicked her fingers and lips, pinched her thigh and fed her chilli padi as punishment in the ten months before her death.
She is also said to have abused another son, then around six years old, and another daughter, then around three years old, in the same period in a similar manner.
The woman also allegedly ill treated three boys and a girl from 8 to 9 February 2018 at the Chin Swee flat, by leaving them in the flat without adult supervision and without adequate food and water
Apart from these charges, the woman also has one pending charge of intentionally perverting the course of justice by burning the two-year-old girl's body in March 2014, and concealing her remains in a metal pot kept in a sealed box under the kitchen stove.
She also faces three charges of providing false information to three public servants. She allegedly lied to a liaison officer from the Ministry of Education that the girl had been taken away by her father as she was undergoing divorce proceedings with the man. She had claimed that she would get the man to contact the liaison officer, despite knowing that the girl was dead.
She allegedly lied to two Child Protective Services officers that she had six children instead of seven, so that the officers would not conduct checks on the seventh child, the girl who died.
The woman's case involving these 12 charges has been adjourned to 13 April for a pre-trial conference.
The AGC previously said that it would be proceeding on a murder charge against the father of the girl. He faces 13 charges most of which are similar to his wife's.
In addition, the man faces one charge for repeat drug consumption, one charge for rioting, and one charge for failing to return to an approved institution.
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