A 43-year-old man in Singapore is on trial for murdering his daughter.

In August 2017, the five-year-old victim was beaten by her father on her head and face, because she had refused to exercise when asked by her stepmother.

The girl was only brought to the hospital the next evening, where she was pronounced dead.

She was found to be severely malnourished, with her body covered in numerous injuries.

Faces 26 other charges

The man also faces 26 other charges, including for providing false information to police officers after his daughter's death.

He and his second wife also face charges for ill-treating his daughter and his son, allegedly confining them in a toilet naked.

His son was almost four years old at the time of the girl's death.

The prosecution for these other charges has been put on hold until after the murder trial, which commenced on Jul. 5.

The accused cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the identity of his surviving son.

Background

The two children who are the victims in the case are the man's biological children from his first marriage.

In 2014, they were placed in foster care by the Child Protection Services but were returned to his care and custody in 2015.

That same year, he married his second wife, a 32-year-old woman who had a daughter from a previous marriage.

The couple then had two other children together, and the seven of them lived together in a rental flat.

Sometime in 2015, the man also started assaulting his daughter and her younger brother.

Confined children naked in the toilet

From early 2016, the two children were confined in a corner of the flat, where they spent most of the day, according to court documents.

In October 2016, the children were shifted to the flat's toilet, where they were confined naked.

At night, they would sleep in the toilet.

During the day, they would be let out for meals or when their father or stepmother needed to use the toilet.

The man also installed a closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) recording the toilet so he and his wife could monitor them.

Assault and death

On Aug. 10, 2017, at around 9pm, the stepmother tried to get the girl to exercise.

However, she refused.

The stepmother went into the living room.

The man went to the toilet to handle the situation with his daughter.

He physically assaulted her on her head and face between Aug. 10 at 9pm and the early morning of Aug. 11.

On Aug. 11, at about 7pm, the man realised his daughter was dead.

Disposed of items linked to her death

The man did not bring her to the hospital immediately.

Instead, he gathered items that were linked to her death, such as a camera, a handphone, a pair of scissors, a cane, a rubber hose, bath towels, and a child safety gate.

He later disposed of these items in different bins at nearby blocks.

He also washed his daughter's body, dressed her up and put her in a pram.

He then arranged with his wife to tell the police that the girl and her brother were not in the flat.

Instead, she was to say that the children, along with their father, were at their grandmother's flat.

After going out to buy some beer, the man returned to the flat and assaulted his wife.

Finally, on the morning of Aug. 12, 2017, he brought the girl's lifeless body in the pram to Singapore General Hospital, with her brother in tow.

This was more than 15 hours after he discovered her death.

Said she "hit her head on a slide"

At the hospital, the girl was pronounced dead around 20 minutes after arrival.

Attempts were made to resuscitate her, but they were unsuccessful.

She was found to be severely malnourished, and covered head to toe in bruises, abrasions, wounds and scars.

An autopsy revealed that she had died from head injuries, likely due to blunt force trauma to both sides of the head and face.

However, when the man spoke to police, he said that she had hit her head on a slide.

He also claimed that on the night before his daughter was found dead, he had been away from home, along with the girl and her brother.

Murder trial

A video recording of the man abusing his daughter just before her death were shown in the murder trial, according to Shin Min Daily News.

The video showed the man kicking and punching his daughter, hitting her with a cane, and grabbing her by the neck.

At one point, the man grabbed his daughter by the hair, lifted her up, and pressed her against the wall.

The man reportedly watched the video calmly at first, but was later seen reacting in shock and using his shirt to wipe away tears.

Court documents state that the abuse started in 2015, when the girl was about three years old.

Her brother, who was two years old at the time, was also abused.

"I would look after my own children, and he would look after his."

The prosecution's first witness was the girl's stepmother.

She confessed to hitting her stepchildren around "five to six times", including on one occasion when she was shocked to find the girl eating faeces.

On some occasions, she had stopped her husband from hitting her stepchildren as she felt he was too forceful.

When asked what she thought about her husband confining her stepchildren in a toilet, she said she felt sad and regretful.

However, when she was asked why she did not step in to stop the abuse, she said that it was because of an arrangement she had with him.

"I told him before that I would look after my own children, and that he would look after his," the woman said.

Could not accept stepchildren as her own

She was also asked why her own children were of a healthy weight, while her stepchildren were extremely skinny.

In response, she said that she and her husband had not given them enough food.

Her two biological daughters also attended school, while the deceased and her brother did not.

When asked about this preferential treatment, the woman shared that she did not feel much sentiment towards her stepchildren, as they were not her own biological children.

As such, she was unable to accept them as her own.

The trial is ongoing.

Top photo by Mothership