SINGAPORE: After an argument with a toddler’s parents over the use of tape at a gift-wrapping station in Toys R Us, a woman kicked the back of the three-year-old boy’s foot, causing him to fall.
She then tried to flee but was caught by the boy’s father and closed-circuit television cameras.
Angela Yong Sze Ting, a 36-year-old mother of young children, was sentenced to 10 days’ jail on Friday (Nov 1) for one count of voluntarily causing hurt to a minor.
The court heard that the victim, whose identity is protected by a gag order, was three years old at the time of the incident on May 1.
He was at United Square Shopping Mall in Thomson Road with his parents and his five-year-old brother that evening.
His parents bought some items at Toys R Us and were wrapping them at the self-help station in the store. Yong had also made a purchase and was at the station to wrap her item.
A verbal dispute arose between Yong and the victim’s parents over the use of the tape.
After the boy’s parents finished wrapping their items, they left the store with the victim and his brother. Yong also finished her wrapping and walked out behind the family.
Still upset over her earlier dispute with the boy’s parents, she caught up with the boy from behind and deliberately kicked the back of his foot.
The boy fell to the ground and landed on his knee. The incident was captured by CCTV cameras.
Yong had made a conscious decision to kick the boy from behind while his parents were walking ahead, thinking she could get away, the court heard.
After kicking the boy, she walked away quickly but the boy’s father saw what happened when he turned to check on his sons.
He stopped Yong and the police were called.
Throughout police investigations, Yong was unremorseful, persistently claiming that she had “accidentally tripped” the victim, said the prosecution.
To date, she has made no restitution.
The boy was seen by a doctor, who diagnosed him with knee pain but noted that he could walk and had no visible injuries.
He was given three days’ medical leave and referred to a child psychiatrist as the doctor observed him to be quiet, afraid and traumatised. However, the boy’s parents did not follow up on this.
UNWARRANTED, UNPROVOKED: PROSECUTOR
The prosecutor sought two to three weeks’ jail, saying Yong’s conduct was “completely unwarranted and unprovoked”.
“If anything, the verbal dispute was between the accused and the victim’s parents. The victim himself was simply a young child,” she said.
Another two aggravating factors were the fact that she attempted to flee and that she was caught by both the victim’s father and on CCTV footage, but insisted throughout police investigations that the incident was accidental.
Yong’s lawyer, Ms Alyssa Galvan Mundo from Teoh & Co, asked for a non-jail sentence instead, saying a deterrent sentence does not necessarily require a jail term.
She said Yong’s family had been having dinner at a restaurant in the mall, and that Yong left the family halfway through the meal to buy the gift.
She was heading back to the restaurant, which “just so happened” to be in the same direction the victim’s family was walking towards.
“So she did not purposely trail the victim’s family, that was just the direction she was heading towards,” said Ms Mundo.
District Judge Eddy Tham noted that there was sufficient force in the kick to cause a young child to fall and experience pain, both from the kick and the fall.
He said the attack was “cowardly” and it is “shocking” that Yong, who is herself a mother with young children, “had no qualms taking it out on a young child of another family she was unhappy with”.
He said that while it was done on the spur of the moment, the kick was nonetheless “clearly a conscious decision on her part” and she attempted to deny her culpability by insisting it was an accident.
Judge Tham found Yong’s background of being a law-abiding citizen to be “a neutral factor in this case”.
Yong attended court with her husband and was allowed to sit down during proceedings as she was having lower back pain.
The penalties for voluntarily causing hurt are a jail term of up to three years, a fine of up to S$5,000, or both. Such an act against a minor below the age of 14 can draw up to double the penalties.
