SINGAPORE, JULY 2 — A trial got underway yesterday of a former Chinese teacher at a preschool who is contesting a charge of ill-treating a two-year-old girl.
Wu Jiaying, a 31-year-old from China, is accused of carrying and forcefully placing the girl on the floor and onto a chair at the preschool, grabbing and lifting the girl by her left arm before pulling her across the classroom.
She is also accused of grabbing the girl by the shoulder and shaking her violently.
Wu has pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Children and Young Persons Act of inflicting “unnecessary physical pain and suffering” on the child.
The defence has not outlined its case but the defence lawyer on Monday alleged that the child suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) while cross-examining the first witness. The judge and prosecution queried the relevance and accuracy of this assertion.
During the first day of the trial, Wu was seen dragging the child, among other things, in closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage taken at the preschool and shown to the court.
The victim and preschool cannot be named due to a court order protecting their identities. Any detail that could lead to their identification has also been omitted from this report.
What happened
At the opening of the trial on Monday, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Matthew Choo read out a statement of facts agreed between the prosecution and defence.
DPP Choo said that the alleged incident happened on May 11, 2022 between 10.17am and 11.22am. The girl was enrolled in Nursery 1 and Wu was one of two teachers assigned to teach children in that grade.
Wu was seen in the CCTV footage played in court lifting the child by her shoulders, carrying the child on her arms, and thereafter placing her on the ground.
After that, she was seen grabbing and lifting the child by her left arm, before dragging the victim to a corner of the classroom.
While this occurred, another teacher at the other end of the classroom could be seen packing some items.
In another part of the CCTV footage shown in court, the child was seen being seated near Wu by the other teacher, who then walked away.
DPP Choo said: “The accused was captured grabbing the victim’s right shoulder and (dragging) the victim to face the accused.
“The accused continued with her work for a brief period before turning her attention to the victim again.
“She used her left finger to repeatedly point at the victim’s forehead. The accused then grabbed the victim’s left shoulder.”
The footage shown in court also showed Wu seemingly shaking the child.
After the child was picked up and left school that afternoon, her mother informed the preschool’s principal that the child had been left with a scratch on her face, DPP Choo added.
When both teachers told the principal that they were unaware of how the scratch occurred, the principal reviewed the CCTV footage the next day on May 12, 2022.
After speaking to the preschool’s director and getting advice from a licensing officer appointed under the Early Childhood and Development Centres Act 2017, the principal made a police report.
DPP Choo said that the preschool terminated Wu’s employment the same day.
The principal also showed the victim’s parents the CCTV footage on May 13, 2022. They withdrew their daughter from the preschool immediately.
Neither court documents nor the first day of the hearing made it clear whether it was alleged that Wu had caused the scratch.
‘Roughly’ put victim on ground
The prosecution’s first witness was Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Francis Phua Tien Soon.
Then an investigating officer, ASP Phua recorded the principal and Wu’s statements in 2022. He also responded to the principal’s police report, visiting the preschool on the same day it was made.
When asked by DPP Choo to describe the CCTV footage of the incident, ASP Phua said that Wu had “roughly” put the child on the floor and chair, and had “shaken the victim violently”.
He also told the court that he had recorded Wu’s statement although he was not the investigating officer for the case.
This was because Wu could speak only Mandarin, and the investigating officer in charge of the case could not.
However, when questioned by Wu’s lawyer — Daniel Atticus Xu of Exodus Law Corporation — ASP Phua said that he did score an A1 for his Chinese O-Levels but was not trained in translation.
Xu also asked ASP Phua if he had verified Wu’s statements regarding the child’s behaviour, before claiming that the child had ADHD during the cross-examination.
The judge interjected and said: “So what the defence is trying to say (is that) she (the victim) is a special kid with ADHD (and that) she (the accused) is not trained to handle a special kid?
“What does this have to do with the case and the charge being made out?”
DPP Choo added that he has not received any evidence that the child has special needs, and that he failed “to see how this has anything to do with the charge”.
Xu did not respond to the judge’s questions in open court. The judge then adjourned the case to hear further submissions in chambers.
The trial continues.
If found guilty, Wu could be jailed for up to eight years or fined up to S$8,000, or both. — TODAY
