Singapore man kills child over cigarettes:
court
SINGAPORE (AFP) - – A Singaporean man has gone on trial charged
with murdering his 23-month-old daughter in a fit of rage after he
caught her playing with his cigarettes, court officials said
Tuesday.
Sallehan Allaudin, 26, is accused of fatally beating his
daughter Nikie in January ahead of her second birthday, causing her
to die of a ruptured vein. If convicted, he could face death by
hanging.
The High Court was told Monday that Sallehan, who had just
returned home with his wife with a present for Nikie, went berserk
after seeing the toddler had torn up and scattered his cigarettes,
the Straits Times reported Tuesday.
Sallehan has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
His wife, Rozanah Mohamed Yusoff, 24, used a mannequin to show
the court how Sallehan allegedly kicked and stomped on their
daughter in the kitchen, the newspaper said.
The couple, who have two younger daughters, called for an
ambulance when Nikie started bleeding from the nose, but she died
of her injuries, according to the report.
"I did not go into the kitchen to stop my husband as I thought
that was the way he wanted to discipline Nikie," the wife was
quoted as saying by the newspaper.
