From March to November 2020, an 11-year-old Singaporean girl, whose name was withheld due to a gag order, was physically abused by her stepfather Mohamad Fazli Selamat and mother Roslinda Jamil inside their Jurong flat.
The girl died on 10 November 2020, four days after Fazli used an exercise bar to batter her multiple times on the head, and Roslinda reportedly did not intervene.
The girl grew up under her mother's care, and Roslinda had to work as a cashier, a clerk, a food delivery rider and an early childhood assistant teacher to support herself and her daughter.
Roslinda later met an auxiliary police officer named Mohamad Fazli Selamat, and they began their romantic relationship in May 2019 before moving in together in October 2019.
According to court documents and the couple's statements, Fazli was unhappy with his stepdaughter for eating slowly and believed that the girl had misbehaved and stolen items from their home.
Fazli would often use items such as a wooden backscratcher, an exercise bar and a cane to beat her whenever she misbehaved, such as sleeping instead of studying or making errors while doing her homework.
[3][4] Between 26 August and 28 October 2020, the child did not go to school because Fazli and Roslinda feared that the abuse would be discovered by the teachers, which may in turn lead to retribution from the authorities.
Two school representatives arrived on 26 September 2020 to visit the girl and check on her, but the couple did not allow them to enter, thus narrowly evading detection of the abuse.
During the call, the CPS officer did not notice any signs of abuse from the victim, who was then wearing long-sleeved clothes and the room itself was poorly lit.
After the assault, Fazli tried to wake her up by sprinkling water on her face, reciting prayers and repeatedly calling her, and two minutes later, the girl responded and woke up.
Fazli noticed that his stepdaughter was bleeding from her right ear and her head was swollen, and this caused him to panic and realize that she required medical attention.
The cause of death was the fatal head injuries sustained by the girl as a result of the exercise bar attack inflicted upon her by her stepfather.
[18] A court order was imposed to prohibit the media from naming the victim publicly, as well as both Roslinda and Fazli, to protect the identity of the girl's brothers.
Mohamed also stated after being impregnated by her then-boyfriend and became a single mom at the age of 16, Roslinda had to juggle between various jobs to support herself and her eldest child, who was the victim in this case, and that her first marriage was unhappy due to her first husband abusing her emotionally and physically.
He wanted to be a good father to his three stepchildren to take care of them, but this desire was hampered and distorted by his experiences of child abuse and adoption.
To sum up his mitigation, Ahmad Nizam stated that Fazli was remorseful for murdering his stepdaughter and he unreservedly accepted the deplorable nature of his actions and his responsibility behind the killing.
Despite the opposition from the defence, Justice Pang agreed with the prosecution's submission and allowed the offenders to be named publicly, although the girl's identity was not revealed out of consideration for the privacy of her three brothers.
She reported that there was difficulty for people to detect the warning signs of child abuse (which is a persistent social issue worldwide and often happens behind closed doors) and the challenges of welfare groups to uncover these cases, regardless of whether the victims died or survived.
Jenner also stated it was the collective responsibility of every member of society to raise alarm and notice these cases and safeguard the children's welfare.