Furious that his nine-year-old son made mistakes in his homework, a Singaporean father beat the boy with a coat hanger, kicking him in his fury.
Angry Father Beats Son Violently
According to The Straits Times, the 35-year-old man yelled at the little boy while beating him: “You know why you don’t know (the answers)? You are stupid!”
The beating — which had been captured on CCTV and shown in court in a recording — lasted for almost 10 minutes. Reports say the camera was in the living room of the house, and it is not known who placed it there.
Beating a child is never acceptable.
The Night of the Beating…
Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Chua is quoted by The Straits Times as saying that the little boy’s mother had gone out that night to meet her friends.
The boy had been doing his homework. And when he encountered some difficulties in doing it, he asked his father for help. The father initially asked the boy to think of the answers by himself. But when the child repeatedly gave him wrong answers, the man lost his temper and went off to get a plastic hanger.
The beating was violent, as described in news reports. With the boy pleading for mercy right through, the man first forcefully pulled the boy off his chair, which made him fall down. Then, he grabbed the child by the leg and held him in the air as he whacked him on the legs and buttocks with the hanger, full strength.
He stopped after 30 seconds, but reportedly didn’t stop shouting at the boy, who looked dazed and kept telling his father that he really didn’t know the answers to the questions.
Following this, the father kicked the boy, while calling him “stupid.” He chased the child into the bedroom where the beating continued, this time by hand.
When the boy’s mother got home, her son told her about what happened, after which she watched the CCTV footage.
The child was admitted to the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital that night because he suffered bruising all over his back and buttocks. He was discharged three days later.
On that same night, a neighbour also heard the child’s cries and the father’s yells, and called the police.
The Singaporean father admitted on Thursday (June 14) to a charge of ill-treating his son, says The Straits Times.
The man’s wife is the complainant in the case. She is also currently undergoing divorce proceedings with him.
For ill-treating his son, the father may be fined up to S$4,000 or jailed up to four years, or both. The incident happened last year.
Spanking can have a long-lasting negative impact on a child.
Negative Effects of Caning
Some adults who were caned as children might feel that it is a necessary way to teach kids a lesson about respect, and they may even claim that they themselves “turned out just fine.”
But many studies have shown that there are actually a number of negative long-term effects of caning which may even remain right up until adulthood, which are:
- Increased aggressive behaviour
- Violence
- Lack of self control
- Continuing the cycle of abuse (bullying others, abusing their spouse, abusing their children)
- Higher risk for delinquency and criminal behaviour
- Mood disorders
- Anxiety disorders
- Alcohol and drug use/dependence
- Personality disorders
- Anti-social behaviour
- Less grey matter in the brain
- Depression
- Low self-esteem
- Mental health disorders
- Addictive behaviour
- Decrease in cognitive ability
Source: The Straits Times
Also read: Spanking in childhood may cause troubled relationships later
