While in primary school, he failed all his tests and examinations, even showing pride when he obtained a score of zero once.

These were details from the childhood of Ridzuan Mega Abdul Rahman, 27, which emerged in court on Friday (Nov. 15).

Ridzuan and his wife Azlin Arujunah, also 27, are accused of murder with common intention by scalding their 5-year-old son.

The court also heard Ridzuan, whose intellectual functions was measured to be in the lower 16th percentile, would often refuse to complete his homework because he found it difficult.

Instead, the one-time boy’s home inmate expected his maternal aunt to do so and would angrily poke her hands with his stationery when she did not.

Intellectually disabled or not

In a tense cross-examination, Ridzuan's defence lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam took the prosecution's witness, psychologist Leung Hoi Ting, to task over her assessment that Ridzuan was not intellectually disabled.

Leung had interviewed Ridzuan after his arrest and administered tests to determine his intellectual function as well as his adaptive function, diagnostic criteria used by the psychologist to determine if the accused had an intellectual disability.

Thuraisingam argued that her report was “inconclusive” because Leung did not interview Ridzuan’s mother and was therefore unable to form a proper opinion on whether diagnostic criteria is satisfied.

Leung disagreed with his take.

Labelling her report on the accused "erroneous", Thuraisingam argued that she had not considered factors that might have indicated a result contrary to her assessment.

These factors, from his childhood, included:

• That Ridzuan's grandmother called him "bodoh" (Malay for stupid)
• That his maternal uncles found it difficult to understand him at times because he would talk quickly and his sentences were hard to follow
• That when enrolled in a mainstream primary school he failed his tests and examinations
• That he was happy when he obtained a score of zero
• That he did not do his homework because he found it difficult, and expected his maternal aunt to complete it for him
• That his social circle narrowed as he got older

According to Thuraisingam, these factors exhibited deficits in the accused's adaptive function.

Adaptive functioning is a measurement of an individual's general ability to take care of himself in daily life.

Leung told the court that when administering a test of Ridzuan's adaptive functioning, his score had indicated that he was low functioning.

However, she had discovered during her interview with him that he actually has the ability to perform most of his daily living tasks.

"He chose not to do so because of his personal preference of relying on others," she said.

"My assessment of Mr Ridzuan's adaptive functioning is that they are adequate and proportionate to that of his peers."

Leung also refuted Thuraisingam's suggestion that she had not considered the factors mentioned above.

She posited that they had to be considered as "part of a larger picture".

Responding to whether Ridzuan's pride at scoring zero on a test showed a deficit in his adaptive functioning, Leung said that it was consistent with his upbringing and family background.

She added that his mother was often absent, and that she "wouldn't be surprised" if there were other children who "showed off to their friends" about scoring zero on a test.

Burns covering 70 per cent of his body

Ridzuan and Azlin are alleged to have severely scalded their son resulting in his death on Oct 23, 2016.

They are also alleged to have abused him in the months preceding his death, repeatedly splashing him with near-boiling water and at one point confining him to a cage meant for a cat.

Earlier in the day, CNA reported that a burns specialist had taken the stand for the prosecution, testifying that the boy had gone into shock during surgery and had raw and dirty wounds.

Gavin Kang Chun-Wei, the doctor who attended to the boy after he was admitted to KK Women's and Children's Hospital, told the court that the five-year-old had "an extensive burn injury covering about 70 per cent" of his body.

When asked by Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Wen Hsien if the injuries as a whole would be sufficient to cause death, Kang said:

"Given the circumstances of this child, yes it is sufficient in terms of the extensiveness of the burn injuries and the poor health of the child."

The trial continues.

If found guilty of murder with common intention, Ridzuan would be sentenced to death, or life imprisonment with caning. His wife would face the same penalties but cannot be caned.

Top image from Facebook via Lianhe Zaobao and court documents