Abuse of 2-month-old baby: Mother gets 8 years’ jail for killing infant, father gets 7 years
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 03 Apr 2025
Author: Selina Lum
High Court judge says it is difficult to fathom the cruelty inflicted on infant.
A two-month-old baby who died from head injuries after her mother forcefully dropped her into a cot was found to have healed fractures, suggesting that the infant was abused soon after she was born.
Text messages between Zabelle Peh’s parents also showed that they were beating her when she was less than two weeks old.
On April 2, Zabelle’s mother Sim Liang Xiu, 31, was sentenced to eight years’ jail after she pleaded guilty to a charge of culpable homicide for an act in their flat in Sembawang Crescent on the night of Jan 8, 2023, that caused the infant’s death.
Zabelle died in hospital five days later.
Sim was assessed to be suffering from post-natal depression at the time, which significantly impaired her mental responsibility for the actions.
Her husband Peh Wei Jian, 34, was sentenced to seven years’ jail.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to take reasonable steps to protect Zabelle from Sim’s acts.
Each parent also faced one charge of child abuse, which was taken into consideration for sentencing.
The mother admitted to acts such as slapping the baby’s face and biting her forearm, while the father admitted to acts such as forcefully pushing the tip of a milk bottle into the baby’s mouth and throwing her into a cot.
In sentencing, High Court judge Dedar Singh Gill said it was difficult to fathom the cruelty inflicted on Zabelle.
Text messages presented in court showed that Zabelle was physically abused over the course of her short life.
In the earliest messages, on Nov 18, 2022, Peh told his wife to “try” not to beat the baby.
In another exchange on Dec 6, 2022, Sim told her husband that she kept beating the baby whenever she used their family photo as her display picture. No mention was made of where she was using the picture.
Peh then asked her if the baby would remember being beaten after she had grown up.
When Sim said she would not, Peh replied: “But don’t make her bone fracture.”
On Jan 8, 2023, Sim threw her daughter into a cot because she was upset with the baby for soiling herself.
Peh discovered the baby was unresponsive after giving her a bath the next day.
The couple then planned to lie to the authorities and healthcare providers to cover up their physical abuse of the baby before they called for an ambulance.
When the paramedics arrived, they performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the baby, whose heart had stopped.
Sim told a paramedic that the baby had become unresponsive after she fell from a bed.
Zabelle was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) for treatment, and then transferred to the intensive care unit at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
A report by KTPH stated that an X-ray suggested an acute chest infection and deformity of her left upper arm bone, which was likely an old injury.
In the report, Peh was noted to have said that he had accidentally dropped the baby in the shower.
KKH’s report stated that the baby had suffered multiple areas of bleeding in her brain, a healed rib fracture, a healed fracture of her left upper arm bone, and new bone formation in her right upper arm bone, which may suggest prior injury. An autopsy found an 11cm skull fracture on the baby.
Sim and Peh were arrested on Jan 12, 2023, and have been in custody since.
The text messages also referred to an older child, but no further mention was made of this child in court.
On April 2, Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh sought eight years’ jail to nine years’ jail for Sim and seven years’ jail to eight years’ jail for Peh.
He said while some sympathy may be accorded to Sim for her challenging circumstances and her mental condition, deterrence and retribution should still feature as dominant sentencing considerations because depression cannot be a licence to kill or to harm others.
Sim’s assigned lawyer, Mr Manoj Nandwani, noted that his client has a history of depression. He said his client had told him not to object to the prosecution’s sentencing submissions.
Peh’s lawyer, Mr Ng Yuan Siang, argued for a sentence of three years’ jail to four years’ jail. He said Sim was abusive towards his client and pointed out that Peh had told Sim to stop abusing the baby on at least seven instances.
Justice Gill rejected Peh’s attempt to portray himself as someone who was dominated by his wife.
The judge said the baby’s father exercised his own free will in abusing the baby, and took no meaningful steps to stop his wife’s abuse of their child.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
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