Warning: This article contains details of abuse which readers may find upsetting.
SINGAPORE: A two-month-old girl died after enduring weeks of abuse by her own parents, culminating in fatal head injuries inflicted by her mother.
On Jan 13, 2023, Zabelle Peh Yu Xuan was pronounced brain dead following acts of blunt force trauma to her head, caused by her mother, Sim Liang Xiu.
When examined, Zabelle was found to have healed fractures sustained over the course of her brief life.
Sim, 31, and her husband, Peh Wei Jian, 34, were each sentenced to jail on Wednesday (Apr 2) over the death of their biological daughter.
Sim received a jail term of eight years, while Peh was handed seven years.
While she previously faced a charge of murder, Sim, who has been diagnosed with post-natal depression, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Peh pleaded guilty to failing to take steps to protect Zabelle.
Each also had one charge of ill-treating Zabelle taken into consideration for their sentencing.
The couple’s abuse of Zabelle began shortly after her birth on Nov 6, 2022.
Sim slapped her baby, pulled and bit her left arm, and forcefully dropped her into the cot, while Peh forcefully pushed a milk bottle into Zabelle’s mouth, pinched and slapped her, and threw her into the cot.
According to court documents, Sim caused blunt force trauma to Zabelle’s head on Jan 8, 2023 after becoming upset that the infant had soiled herself.
The next morning, Peh found the infant unresponsive after bathing her.
The couple called the ambulance and the infant was conveyed to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for emergency treatment. The hospital noted dried blood over her nostrils and that she had no pulse.
An X-ray of Zabelle’s chest showed that she had a collapsed left lung with fluids, and a deformed upper left arm likely to be an old injury.
Zabelle was later conveyed to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. However, the infant showed no response to stimuli and had signs of significant brain damage.
No improvement was picked up despite treatment and Zabelle was pronounced brain dead on Jan 13, 2023.
During their treatment of the baby, doctors found old injuries, including healed fractures on her rib and upper left arm bone.
An autopsy found that Zabelle sustained a skull fracture and bleeding around her brain, adding to her extensive list of injuries. The baby’s cause of death was determined to be from a head injury.
Meanwhile, the couple sought to conceal their abuse by lying that Peh had dropped Zabelle while bathing her.
PEH AWARE OF ABUSE
In court, the prosecution read out a series of messages exchanged between Sim and Peh, showing that Peh had been aware of the violence inflicted on his daughter.
In these messages, Peh asked Sim not to beat Zabelle and “don’t make her bone fracture”, with Peh warning “if we keep like that beat her or what (sic), sure one day we go police station”.
In her replies, Sim would often blame Zabelle for crying, or would respond aggressively to Peh.
In one message, she stated: “Dun (sic) act like you never abuse la I want to make her die also not your problem”.
After the couple’s arrest, Sim was assessed to have post-natal depression which contributed to her offences. Her condition was deemed to be an abnormality of mind which “significantly impaired her mental responsibility” for her actions.
Peh was assessed to be of sound mind, although his report noted that he was diagnosed with mental retardation in 2009. However, he did not meet the criteria for intellectual disability and does not have a mental illness.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh highlighted Zabelle’s extreme youth and vulnerability, and the couple’s “pattern of cruel conduct”.
Pointing out that Zabelle’s old injuries, Mr Koh said: “It is shocking that such injuries can be found when the deceased is only two months old. The inference can be drawn that the injuries (were inflicted) close in time to her date of birth, as it has taken time to heal.”
These injuries indicated prolonged abuse over the course of Zabelle’s short life, he said. Mr Koh then told the court that the pair had referred to beating Zabelle when she was less than two weeks old.
The prosecution sought eight to nine years’ jail for Sim and seven to eight years’ jail for Peh.
In mitigation, Sim’s lawyer Manoj Nandwani highlighted his client’s history of depression, which existed before her current offences.
Sim’s earliest contact with the Institute of Mental Health had been in 2007 when she was 14, and she attempted suicide in 2011, the lawyer said.
Mr Nandwani said Sim had instructed him not to object to the prosecution’s proposed sentence.
The lawyer also expressed Sim’s remorse to the court. “Beyond any sentence, she will have to live with, in her conscience, the death of her own biological child, which will remain with her for the rest of her life,” said Mr Nandwani.
Sim and Peh, both attended court via videolink. While Peh appeared stoic throughout most of the hearing, Sim would at times show signs of emotion.
Lawyer Ng Yuan Siang, who mitigated for Peh, said his client’s culpability was low, in part because he was physically abused by Sim during their time together.
Peh was the sole breadwinner of the family who struggled to make ends meet, and was frequently away from home for work, Mr Ng said.
Despite his domestic abuse, Peh did not retaliate and would even try to placate Sim, Mr Ng said.
Mr Ng called the prosecution’s argument that Peh had done “practically nothing” to stop the abuse of Zabelle an “unfair characterisation”. He said Peh had told Sim to use less force or stop hitting the infant on at least seven occasions, and urged the court to impose three to four years’ jail on his client.
Delivering the sentence, Justice Dedar Singh Gill noted that it was “difficult for a sentient person to fathom the cruelty inflicted on Zabelle”.
The judge took into consideration Sim’s mental condition and her remorse, as well as her plea of guilt.
Justice Gill rejected the portrayal of Peh as a victim of domestic abuse and found that his culpability was high.
Pointing out Peh’s own abuse of Zabelle, the judge said there was no indication that he carried out these acts due to his wife’s “dominance over him”, and added that there was no evidence to show that Sim was physically abusive.
Peh’s messages to Sim asking her not to hurt the baby were “plainly inadequate”, Justice Gill said, adding that the defence’s proposed sentence for Peh was “manifestly inadequate” as it failed to take into account the seriousness of the offence and its aggravating factors.
