More facts have emerged with regard to the case of a special needs therapist who manhandled a boy during a home therapy session.

Autism STEP, a company which provides "1 to 1 Home Based ABA therapy" as one of its services, has made a public statement on its Facebook page on July 1, confirming its involvement in the case.

Autism STEP says monetary compensation agreed upon, mum disagrees

In a reply to a comment on one of its Facebook posts, Autism STEP said the parents of the boy had "demanded from the company monetary compensation".

It claimed that "we have agreed on the amount of monetary compensation, even before the video was posted".

However, the boy's mother, Safirah Oshin, denied that this was the case in a Facebook post on July 1, saying that there had been no agreement on the amount of compensation.

She added that she had only asked for a refund of fees paid to Autism STEP, and not compensation for the actions of the therapist.

Safirah told Mothership that, to date, she has not received any payment from the company.

Therapist was dismissed, but police case unresolved

The company also said that the therapist involved had been "summarily dismissed" on March 30, 2019.

CCTV footage of the incident uploaded by the boy's mother, had a timestamp stating the date as March 29, 2019.

Autism STEP's Facebook post also said that its clinical director, together with the therapist, "visited the family on the very night to express our apologies".

Safirah said that this took place at the hospital where her son was being attended to, and shared that in addition to the apology, she had been asked to retract a police report that had been made earlier that day. She declined.

The police case is still pending resolution since it was filed on the day of the incident on March 29, 2019.

Safirah found out, sometime in August 2019, that the case had been deemed closed by the police when she called to check on the status of the investigation, and was told that the therapist had been issued a "verbal warning with no further action".

Her efforts to have the police case reopened proved successful in January 2020, but she was told last week that a new Investigation Officer (IO) had been assigned, leading her to conclude that there was no progress on the case.

This led Safirah to post two video clips on Facebook on June 30, saying that there was "still no justice" since the event, even after the case was reopened in January 2020.

MSF investigating the case

The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) is looking into the matter and investigating.

Both Desmond Lee and Tan Chuan-Jin, ministers who helmed the social and family development ministry, have spoken out against the incident.

Mothership has reached out to both MSF and the police about this incident, and will update the article with their response.

Top image via Safirah Oshin on FB