Two children in Singapore suffered at the hands of their biological father for almost two years, being confined in small spaces, eating their faeces out of starvation, and enduring physical abuse.

The man's abuse of his children came to a head when he beat his five-year-old daughter to death in the toilet where she and her younger brother had been confined naked for close to 10 months.

The man, now 44, cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the identity of his son, who survived the abuse, CNA and The Straits Times reported.

The boy was severely malnourished and unable to stand by himself when he was admitted to the hospital. He did not speak and was diagnosed with global developmental delay due to social deprivation.

He had to undergo physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy and spent four months in hospital before he was well enough to be placed in foster care.

The presiding judge lifted the gag order on the victim's first name, Ayeesha, for society to remember her.

He sentenced the man on Apr. 30, 2024 to 34.5 years in jail — an "unprecedented" duration —  to reflect the "abhorrence and disgust of the community" at the "inhumane, disgusting abuse" that the man subjected his children to.

The judge said the man had essentially used his children as “punching bags for whatever frustration or anger” he felt.

Children starved and ate their own faeces

The man, who had trained in silat, taekwondo and aikido, started abusing his children in December 2015, when Ayeesha and her brother were only three and two years old respectively.

The abuse went on until Ayeesha's death in August 2017.

Ayeesha and her brother — the man's children from his first marriage — had previously been in foster care in June 2014 but returned to live with the man and his second wife in early 2015.

The man worked as an auxiliary police officer or security officer for different companies from 2003 to 2016. He then worked in a fast food restaurant from 2016 to April 2017 before he became unemployed.

The man ran into financial difficulties and as a result, bought less food and diapers, and reduced the children's meals to twice a day.

Ayeesha and her brother lost weight and began eating their faeces out of starvation.

"Naughty corner"

They also played with their faeces, incurring their father's wrath on more than one occasion.

In an incident in December 2015, the man repeatedly punched and smacked Ayeesha and her brother after noticing rice, flour, curry powder, utensils and faeces strewn across the kitchen.

Ayeesha and her brother were also found eating the contents of a mattress with their diapers torn in an incident in February 2016. The man slapped them forcefully, causing their heads to hit each other.

In that same month, the man and his wife confined Ayeesha and her brother in a "naughty corner" as the children often woke up earlier than the couple and made a mess in the house.

The couple barricaded them in a space between a bookshelf and a wardrobe in a corner of their bedroom measuring about 90cm by 90cm.

Ayeesha and her brother were kept in the "naughty corner" from February to October 2016, even when they had not misbehaved. They were only let out to eat and bathe.

During that time, the man did not stop abusing Ayeesha and her brother, as captured by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera that the couple installed in the "naughty corner".

The man was seen in CCTV footage in an incident on Mar. 27, 2016, delivering 86 blows to Ayeesha, repeatedly slapping, punching, caning and kicking her for 16 minutes after she smeared her faeces on the wall.

The impact of the man's blows caused Ayeesha to become motionless for more than a minute at one point.

The couple moved the "naughty corner" to the toilet in the kitchen in October 2016 and reinstalled the CCTV camera there. Ayeesha and her brother were kept naked in the toilet and were only let out to eat or when the man and his wife used the toilet.

The toilet was often stained with their faeces.

Man lied to hide children from social services

The family's situation had been monitored by Thye Hua Kwan - Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre (FSC). The FSC worked with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).

The man brought Ayeesha and her brother to a counselling session at the centre in May 2015. That was the last time that case officers would see her alive.

He would lie about Ayeesha and her brother's whereabouts in subsequent visits to the FSC, before disappearing and becoming uncontactable from October 2015 to September 2016.

Case officers called him, sent messages and emails, and visited the family's flat, but were unable to reach the man.

He went to the FSC on Sep. 1, 2016 and continued lying about Ayeesha and her brother's whereabouts.

In October 2016, the man called the case officer and requested for Ayeesha and her brother to be placed in foster care as he feared he might harm them out of frustration. By then, the man's abuse had gone on for close to a year.

The case officer notified MSF, told the man to bring his children down to the FSC the next day, and advised him to ask his neighbours or parents to care for the children that night.

The next day, the man went to the FSC alone and said he wanted to put Ayeesha and her brother up for adoption, even though the case officer suggested arranging foster care.

The man was given the contact details of Apkim Centre of Social Services, which provides adoption services.

He visited the organisation with his wife sometime later, without their children, and did not proceed further with the adoption.

He then told a visiting FSC case officer on Apr. 27 that preparations were being made for Ayeesha and her brother to be put up for adoption.

The case officer made a house visit on Apr. 27 after the couple visited the FSC to request financial support on Feb. 14.

The man's wife lied about the adoption once more on Jun. 21, and requested for the FSC to close their case.

Ayeesha was hit repeatedly before she was found dead

Ayeesha passed away less than two months later at her father's hands.

He started assaulting her on Aug. 10, 2017 after his wife complained to him that Ayeesha did not listen to her.

She had told Ayeesha and her brother, who were sleeping in the toilet, around 9pm that day to move their legs as they had not been active the entire day while confined inside.

The man went to the toilet, pulled Ayeesha up from the ground and smacked her face 15 to 20 times. Ayeesha's head was tilted back in an awkward position when he placed her on the ground.

He returned to the toilet to assault the children after his wife complained to him at around 3am on Aug. 11 that Ayeesha and her brother were sleeping in a weird posture.

Ayeesha and her brother were left alone in the toilet for the rest of Aug. 11, until the man's wife needed the toilet in the evening and saw a cold and unresponsive Ayeesha facing up with her eyes closed.

She called the man who performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before realising that Ayeesha was dead.

Came up with a plan protecting wife, lied to authorities

The man then told his wife he would "clean up the evidence". He threw away various items including the CCTV camera, a mobile phone, a pair of scissors, a cane, a rubber hose, bath towels and a child safety gate, disposing of them in different rubbish bins in the wee hours on Aug. 12.

These items were never retrieved.

He came up with a plan to protect his wife, assaulting her and telling her to lodge a police report against him for doing so and raping her.

He also told her to say that she had been at home while he was out with Ayeesha and her brother.

The man brought Ayeesha's body and his son to Singapore General Hospital in a pram, lying to SGH staff that the girl became unresponsive that morning.

SGH doctors tried to resuscitate Ayeesha before pronouncing her dead at 10:49am.

The police were alerted as she was severely malnourished, weighing only 13.2kg, and her body bore multiple scars, marks and other external injuries. Her body also had a foul odour.

The man was arrested that afternoon but lied to the police in several statements that Ayeesha had hit her head and tumbled down a slide at a playground on the night of Aug. 11.

He only came clean on Aug. 18 after the police showed him footage of himself returning to his block alone in the early hours of Aug. 12.

Pleaded guilty to culpable homicide

The man was handed a total of 26 charges, including the capital charge of murder.

He went on trial for murder before admitting to the offences when the prosecution offered to reduce the charge to culpable homicide.

He pleaded guilty to culpable homicide, and five other charges including child abuse and disposing evidence.

Another 20 charges relating to child abuse and lying to police officers were considered in sentencing.

CNA reported that the man wept as details of the abuse were read out loud, and when videos of him hitting Ayeesha and her brother were played in court.

The prosecutor said the videos played in court were just a few minutes of Ayeesha and her brother's life for the past two years.

She told the court that the abuse the man inflicted on his children was the "worst of its type" and would "break the will of any human being".

She sought a total of 30 to 34 years' imprisonment and at least 12 strokes of the cane.

She also said the prosecution would review the case against Ayeesha's stepmother, who was named as a co-accused in the charges of confining the children to the toilet.

The defence referred to previous cases where the jail sentences were between 18 to 20 years and asked for a shorter sentence.

The defence argued that a sentence of 30 to 34 would be unprecedented, prompting the prosecutor to counter that the facts of the case were unprecedented.

The judge sentenced the man to 34.5 years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane, noting that he had subjected his children to physical, mental and emotional abuse.

He said the man had taken the concept of a "naughty corner" and "mutated it into a device of torture".

He said the primary consideration for sentencing is retribution.

"It is punishment to reflect the state's denouncing of such loathsome and sickening acts. Others must also be severely deterred from committing any abuse of this kind."

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