Man acquitted of murder of 4-year-old stepdaughter in Bukit Batok flat, convicted of causing grievous hurt

SINGAPORE — A High Court judge on Tuesday (March 1) acquitted a 29-year-old man of a capital murder charge, after finding that he did not intentionally kick his four-year-old stepdaughter in the abdomen.

Following a trial, Muhammad Salihin Ismail was instead convicted of a lesser charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt to Nursabrina Agustiani Abdullah on Sept 1, 2018. The incident happened at a housing block along Bukit Batok West Avenue 9.

The original charge arose from two incidents of assault that day when Salihin had pushed the girl down on the floor in anger and kicked her twice in the abdomen “very forcefully”, based on his own confessions.

She died the next day from blunt force trauma to the abdomen.

Salihin was angry when the girl urinated outside the toilet bowl. He and his wife were trying to toilet-train her in preparation for school.

Salihin had married her mother Syabilla Syamien Riyadi in August 2016 when Nursabrina was two years old. Syabilla, a Singapore permanent resident who gave birth to the girl when she was 17 turning 18, had been jailed for drug-related offences in the past.

The couple also had twin boys in November 2016, shortly after they married. The family of five then moved into their Bukit Batok rental flat in the first half of 2018.

Prosecutors accused Salihin of striking Nursabrina in the abdomen a few times with his fist that fateful morning.

However, High Court judge Pang Khang Chau accepted Salihin's testimony that he had not punched Nursabrina but merely “used his knuckles as an obstacle” to prevent the girl from getting off the toilet seat.

Later that afternoon, when Nursabrina said that she wanted to go to the toilet, Salihin asked her to go on her own but she urinated on the floor again.

He then pushed her on the shoulder and kicked her twice while she was on the ground, then placed her on the toilet bowl again and hit her torso a few more times.

Later that evening during dinner, Nursabrina vomited after complaining that her stomach hurt. She had eaten some mouthfuls of rice.

Salihin and his wife applied ointment to her abdomen but she continued vomiting from 1am to 8am. He then took the girl to the toilet and used his index finger to induce her to vomit as she had trouble doing so.

After vomiting again, she fell unconscious and could not be resuscitated. Salihin carried her out of the toilet and told his wife to call for an ambulance.

Two paramedics who arrived at the scene testified that they found Nursabrina in the flat, not breathing and without a pulse. She was pronounced dead in Ng Teng Fong General Hospital at about 10am.

DID NOT AIM AT PARTICULAR BODY PART

On Monday, Justice Pang noted that four elements have to be present to prove a charge of murder under Section 300(c) of the Penal Code:

• A bodily injury must be present and objectively proved
• The nature of the injury must be objectively proved
• It must be established that the injury was intentionally inflicted
• The injury must be sufficient to cause death in the ordinary cause of nature

The judge said he was not satisfied that the third element was proven. The evidence was that Salihin had reacted angrily when he kicked the girl and did not aim at any particular part of her body.

“Although he kicked her intentionally, there was no intention to strike the part of the body where the injury was found and also no intention to strike with sufficient force to cause the kind of injury found to be present,” the judge added.

The judge also noted that the injuries indicated in Nursabrina’s medical report were not solely attributed to Salihin’s kicks.

After Salihin kicked the girl, her twin brothers had also bounced on her stomach. Salihin performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation when the girl lost consciousness.

Justice Pang said he was satisfied that the medical evidence showed these other contributory causes had a negligible contributory impact on Nursabrina’s death.

As to whether to convict Salihin of a less serious charge based on what the prosecution had already proven, Justice Pang said that culpable homicide not amounting to murder was not an option.

This was because he found that Salihin had not kicked Nursabrina with the intent to cause bodily injury that caused death, and did not know it was likely to cause death.

Causing death by a rash or negligent act was also not an option because he had deliberately kicked the girl, Justice Pang added.

The prosecution sought time to file written submissions on the sentence. The judge then adjourned the case to an undetermined date and granted Salihin’s family members time to speak to him after the hearing was over.

Salihin can be jailed for up 10 years, as well as fined or caned, for voluntarily causing grievous hurt. He would have faced the death penalty or life imprisonment with caning if convicted of murder.

He was represented by Mr Eugene Thuraisingam and Mr Suang Wijaya.

Salihin still faces two charges of voluntarily causing hurt to Nursabrina by means of a heated substance and ill-treating her, which were stood down during the trial.

He is said to have placed a shower head with hot water flowing out of it on her back for about five to six seconds between July and October 2017, causing redness and scald marks.

He also allegedly slammed the girl’s head on the floor sometime between January and April 2018, causing a bruise on her forehead.