Parents who kept 5-year-old in cat cage and scalded him to death with boiling water get 27 years in jail
A couple who kept their five-year-old son in a cat cage and poured boiling water over him, scalding the child to death, has been sentenced to 27 years of prison. The pair, identified as 28-year-old Ridzuan Mega Abdul Rahman and wife Azlin Arujunah, also 28, in the months leading up to their son's death, held him in a cat box and tortured him with heated spoons and pliers for months. The child was not named due to a court order.
The judge, during the sentencing, held both equally responsible for the child's death and sentenced the father, Abdul Rahman, to 24 lashes with a cane, while the mother, Azlin Arujunah, is set to serve an extra year in prison in lieu of caning. Prosecutors, at Singapore's High Court, where the case was heard, described it as "one of the worst cases of child abuse," according to the Daily Mail.
The trial in the case began last year, on November 12, where a court was told how the five-year-old died in October 2016 after being hit on the head multiple times and water at 198 F being poured over his back and calves. Prosecutors said that the boiling water caused burns to 75 percent of the child's body. Reports state that the couple scalded the body with hot water on at least four occasions between October 15 and October 22, 2016 at their one-bedroom apartment in Toa Payoh, Singapore.
According to the prosecutors, the boy at one occasion yelled "are you crazy or what?" which reportedly angered the parent into dousing him with more boiling water. The boy, on the day of his death, October 12, 2016, was allegedly confined to a cat cage. The child reportedly refused after his mother wanted to bathe him so the father in an attempt to discipline him poured a lot of hot water over his calf and back. The five-year-old then topped forward and stopped moving, the court heard.
Although the child was rendered unconscious after the assault, his parents, instead of seeking immediate medical attention, waited for at least six hours before taking him to the hospital. The child later succumbed to his injuries. During the trial, the court was shown pictures of the boy's injuries. According to a pathologist, he had a fracture to his nose, bruising on his limbs, scalp, and lips. His gums were also torn.
Reports state that a foster family had taken the boy soon after his birth in 2011, however, he was later returned to his biological parents in 2015. The couple, who have other children and are unemployed, reportedly began confining the child to a pet cage — just 91 cm long, 58 cm wide and 70 cm tall — since then, often pinching him with pliers, hitting him with a broom, and burning his palm with a heated spoon.
Justice Valerie Thean, during the sentencing, described confining the boy to a cage as "extremely cruel." While Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Wen Hsien said the boy had suffered a "fate worse than death."