SINGAPORE, July 19 — Not long after he hit his girlfriend’s toddler on the head with his mobile phone and caused the child to have a brain injury, a man choked the toddler until the boy lost consciousness.

The man, a 33-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty to three charges of voluntarily causing hurt to a victim under 14 years old and two charges of voluntarily causing hurt to his then girlfriend today.

Three other similar charges and a charge of criminal intimidation will be taken into consideration for sentencing, which is set for Aug 26.

The name of the man cannot be published, due to a court order preventing the identification of the 33-year-old woman and her young son.

Kicking girlfriend, injuring child

The man first met his girlfriend sometime in early September 2022 and he later moved into her home.

Investigations revealed that he would become irritated whenever her son would cry or not follow his instructions. Irritated by these, he would hit the boy.

During the time of the assaults, the toddler was close to four years old.

In November 2022, while the girlfriend was cooking in the kitchen, her boyfriend lost his patience and slapped the toddler who was in the living room.

The couple were earlier unable to get the boy to stop crying.

When she went to stop the man after the slap, he told her not to intervene and kicked her in the face.

He also threw his mobile phone at her, causing her to have a bruise on her eye and cut on her nose.

About a month later on Dec 18, the boy was unable to sleep and was crying. The man got angry and used his mobile phone to hit the boy’s forehead multiple times.

Seeing this, his mother intervened and tried to come between the man and her son, but the man slapped her, pulled her hair and kicked her abdomen before continuing to hit the boy.

After he attacked the child, the man said that the swelling on the boy’s head was "normal” and would not allow the girlfriend to seek medical attention for her son.

He let her take the boy to the hospital three days later only when the child’s condition worsened but threatened that he would beat her up if she told medical personnel about the abuse.

She therefore lied to the doctors that her son had possibly fallen in the washroom.

When the boy was admitted to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, he was suffering from a headache, drowsiness and persistent vomiting.

He was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury resulting in subdural haematoma, or internal bleeding between his skull and brain, and was hospitalised for five days.

Another attack

Before the boy was discharged on Dec 26, the man was told about the internal bleeding.

About a week later, the boy was in pain and cried. Irritated by this, the man grabbed the child by the neck and lifted him off the floor.

When the girlfriend tried to stop him, he pushed her away with his elbow. The boy lost consciousness and his head tilted back.

When the man saw that, he stopped choking the boy and tried to wake him up by blowing air into his mouth and sprinkling water on his face. The boy woke up eventually.

He received follow-up treatment at the hospital, where his mother reported that the boy’s persistent headaches, poor appetite and frequent vomiting had become worse.

He was admitted to the hospital again and his symptoms gradually improved. During this period, the man moved out of the home and the couple soon ended their relationship.

The woman then reported to the police that the man had beaten her and her son on various occasions.

For voluntarily causing hurt, the man could be jailed for up to three years or fined up to S$5,000 (RM17,433), or both.

Since he hurt someone with whom he is in a close relationship and someone under the age of 14, he could face up to double the maximum punishment for each charge. — TODAY