“I have done something bad to my son,” repeated Philippe Graffart as he confessed his guilt to a police officer at a vending machine outside the Bukit Timah Neighbourhood Police Centre.
The Belgian man, who admitted to killing his five-year-old son in Singapore, was spared from execution by hanging on Monday, after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide.
The 42-year-old was originally charged with murder, a capital offence, but was found by a Singapore government psychiatrist to be suffering from a “major depressive disorder”.
Graffart’s son was found dead in his upmarket D’Leedon condo apartment in Oct 5 last year — a tragic conclusion to an intense custody battle with his wife in the months prior to the boy’s death. He had exchanged several emails with his lawyers about the case that day, expressing how he was “so tired of all this”, Channel NewsAsia reported.
The family moved to Singapore from Luxembourg in 2013, but the couple’s marriage broke down the following year.
The former financial executive admitted to giving his son — Keryan Gabriel Cedric Gaffart — a sedative before smothering him with a cushion that night between 9pm and 10.17pm.
He then got into his car and took a drive along the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE). After unbuckling his seatbelt, he crashed his Audi sedan at full speed into the MCE tunnel wall.
His suicide attempt failed as he managed to escape with minor injuries after the airbags were deployed. Graffart was taken to Singapore General Hospital in an ambulance, but left on his own accord around 3.45am.
He took an Uber home to try and kill himself again, but could not bring himself to jump off his 32nd-storey balcony or stab himself with a knife.
He then took another Uber to the nearest police station. Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Azri Aldrin Lim Teck Guan saw the disoriented man (with cuts, scrapes and an IV drip still attached to his hand) outside the station and offered him $2 to buy a drink. It was then that Graffart made the shocking confession, prompting the police to go to his apartment, where they found the motionless boy in the master bedroom.
Philippe Graffart now faces up to 10 years in jail, a fine, caning, or any combination of the three penalties when he is sentenced on August 22.
With text by AFP
