Since 2012, four-year-old Mohammad Airyl Amirul Haziq bore the brunt of his mother’s inhumane physical abuse.
She roughed him up as punishment for stumbling with his alphabets and reciting numbers — to the extent that he was repeatedly shoved and got his ribs stepped on. All her abuse came to an apex on August 2014, when she choked the toddler unconscious. He died four days later in hospital.
34-year-old Noraidah Mohd Yussof has since pleaded guilty to two counts each of causing grievous hurt and ill-treating a child, The Straits Times reports. She also admitted to six instances of physical abuse, all of which took place at her Eunos Flat.
Even when the toddler was as young as two-years-old, Noraidah meted out vicious punishments on her child. In March 2012, she became irritated after he was did not listen to her when she tried to teach him the alphabet. She pushed him to the floor and stepped on his ribs — he suffered fractures to his left elbow, left calf, and right ribs.
When he received treatment at the hospital, she lied that he fell. The Ministry of Family and Social Development however seemed to know something was up and placed the boy in the care of Noraidah’s brother and sister-in-law.
The abuse started up again in July 2014. She kicked him in the waist for defecating on the flat’s floor, and even stepped on his stomach with both her feet.
The worst of her assault however was in August that year. She had asked Airyl to recite numbers in English and Malay — but the boy made mistakes when he could not recite them properly in Malay. As punishment, the mother shoved the boy to the floor, and even stepped on his knees a couple of times.
The boy continued to recite numbers wrongly, and she carried out more attacks. Noraidah pushed her sons’s neck against a wall, lifting him off the floor — she only let go when the boy gasped for air. He became unresponsive and stopped moving.
The mother called for help from a neighbour and lied that the boy hit his head after a fall in the toilet. They took him to a nearby clinic, and the doctor called for an ambulance.
At the hospital, Airyl underwent emergency surgery but remained in critical condition and died four days later. His death was attributed to bleeding in the head, bruising of the scalp and skull fracture.
In court, there were differing opinions between the psychiatrists for the prosecution and the defence — the latter had concluded that Noraidah has Asperger’s syndrome, based on interviews with family members. The prosecution however attests that the family’s accounts differed from the ones they gave to government psychiatrist.
A further hearing will be held before she is sentenced.
