The ultimate punishment
27 year old Sallehan Allaudin, a cleaner by trade, is accused of murdering his 23 month old daughter Natalie Nikie Alisyia Sallehan. The story goes that Sallehan had left his Boon Lay flat earlier in the day to buy a birthday present for his toddler, Nikie. He left Nikie and her two younger sisters – one just over a year old and the other two months old – at home.
Saleehan was reportedly happy when he returned home. He had even brought dolls for his daughters. However upon returning to find his daughter Nikie eating and playing with his cigarettes. Sallehan said that he then scolded Nikie, pulling her into the kitchen before slapping and punching her.
In a cruel turn of events, Nikie died from the injuries sustained in the beating. An autopsy found that Nikie had died from a tear in a major vein, likely caused about by Sallehan’s hard punches.
Accidental or deliberate?
Sallehan faces the death penalty if convicted.
When brought to court, Sallehan claimed the defence of grave and sudden provocation. He said that his actions were influenced by Nikie’s loud cries, stress over the family’s financial difficulties and suspicions about his wife’s fidelity. The combination of all these factors caused him to lose his self control.
During the trial, Sallehan told the court that Nikie as a “strong”child who could withstand the pain and he thought that his actions would “only cause some swelling and not death”.
However, the prosecution argued that Sallehan had not lost his self-control but had made a conscious and deliberate decision to punish Nikie. Sallehan had pulled the girl into the kitchen so that the neighbours would not hear her cries. According to his account, he had used “half his strength” to hit Nikie and chose to punch her in the back because he believed that it was the strongest part of the body.
Sallehan’s lawyer nonetheless argued that his client could not have foreseen that his beatings would result in the rupture of the vein and that even the forensic pathologist himself had never seen such an injury. Nikie had died after a delicate thin-walled blood vessel linked to the heart ruptured.
A case of bad parenting
The story is a case in point on the repercussion of bad parenting. Firstly, the young parents left the house leaving three children, all under the age of two, at home alone without supervision. The dangers that an apartment can contain, coupled with the presence of three severely immature, dependant toddlers and babies is a recipe for disaster. Worst things can happen besides finding a parent’s cigarettes.
Ironically, finding the cigarettes turned out to be the worst thing that happened to young Nikie. Which brings us to another horrible parenting error: Irresponsible disciplining. A parent should not use physical means of punishment against children under two years of age. At such a tender age a child’s body is extremely fragile and still undergoing the early stages of development. Heavy hitting would inevitably cause damage to a frail body.
Finally, parents should strive to not succumb to their tempers. In doing so, they lose control and become negative role models for their children. Moreover, in their blind rage they may end up hurting those they love, just as Sallehan did. And it was ultimately the toddler, Nikie who ended up paying the ultimate price for her parents’ shortcomings.