Mother of 4-year-old girl allegedly killed by stepfather testifies that daughter made a fist before she died

SINGAPORE: The mother of a four-year-old girl who died from internal bleeding due to blunt-force trauma of her abdomen testified in a murder trial against her husband on Wednesday (Feb 3), saying that she looked pale and said her stomach hurt before she died.

The little girl made a fist and showed it to her mother, but said it was not her stepfather who hit her. "I don't know why (my daughter) collapsed and passed away," said the girl's mother in a statement to the police tendered in court on Wednesday.

Syabilla Syamien Riyadi, 24, took the witness stand for the prosecution in the trial against Muhammad Salihin Ismail, 28, whom she married in August 2016. Salihin is accused of killing his stepdaughter via two incidents of assault on Sep 1, 2018, where he hit her multiple times in the abdomen and kicked her stomach forcefully.

READ: Man on trial for beating 4-year-old stepdaughter to death for not being toilet-trained

Syabilla was escorted to court from prison, where she has been remanded since Oct 30, 2020. She faces pending charges for leaving her home to carry out loan shark harassment in June 2020, consumption of methamphetamine around Jun 16, 2020 and on Oct 28, 2020, as well as possession of meth.

She exchanged looks with her husband briefly before giving her testimony. Questioned by Deputy Public Prosecutor Senthilkumaran Sabapathy and defence lawyer Syazana Yahya, Syabilla described how her daughter was a cheerful girl who liked to help with chores and was mischievous, enjoying running around the house.

She played often with her twin brothers, who were about two years old at the time of the offence. She explained that she had been trying to toilet-train the victim but was not successful. 

THE EVENTS OF THAT DAY

Sometime in the afternoon on Sep 1, 2018, Salihin texted her and complained that the victim had urinated on the floor. In a message Salihin sent to her, he said: "Nonsense lah this (victim's name). I've already said if she want to, tell ... but she just peed only, jinx lah."

This was not the first time the victim urinated on the floor, said Syabilla. However, she claimed that Salihin was "okay" when the victim urinated on the floor, but would be angry if she did it outside the toilet.

On the way home that day, Syabilla said they quarrelled via text messages about her heading home late. According to the prosecution, Salihin had hit the victim in the stomach a few times with his fist while Syabilla was out for work, after she urinated on the floor outside the toilet.

He allegedly pushed her when she passed urine on the floor in front of the toilet bowl later that day, before kicking her stomach forcefully. When the girl started crying, Salihin allegedly picked her up and placed her on the toilet bowl where he hit her in the stomach a few times with his fist.

That evening, when Syabilla got home, she saw that her daughter looked "quite pale" and was "perspiring a bit", she told the court.

After the girl ate her third mouthful of chicken rice for dinner that night, she told Syabilla that her stomach felt painful.

WOKEN UP BY DAUGHTER CALLING OUT

Early the next morning, Syabilla said she was woken up by her daughter calling to Salihin, saying that she wanted to vomit and that her stomach was painful. When Syabilla asked her what happened, the girl said the twins sat on her stomach and showed her a balled-up fist.

Syabilla took it to mean she was punched, and asked her if Salihin had punched her, but the girl said no, testified Syabilla.

That was the last time she saw her daughter alive, she said. Salihin took the child into the toilet, and later emerged carrying her unconscious body. He told Syabilla that the girl was no longer breathing and asked her to call an ambulance.

While waiting for it, Salihin performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the victim, pressing down on her stomach, said Syabilla. When she did not respond, Salihin slapped her face to wake her up, she added.

The defence questioned two paramedics on the stand a day earlier, and they confirmed that it could be dangerous for an adult to perform CPR on a child.

At some point, Syabilla asked her husband what happened to the victim. He gave her an account that was not elaborated on in court, and Syabilla said she did not probe further as she was afraid of him.

Asked why, she said: "Because he will get defensive if I ask more questions."

The victim was taken to hospital and pronounced dead at 10.12am on Sep 2, 2018. She died from blood within the peritoneal cavity due to blunt-force trauma of the abdomen. The pathology of the trauma was consistent with the infliction of "non-accidental injuries on a young child", the court heard.

Salihin was arrested after initial investigations by the police. He admitted in a police statement that he intentionally inflicted blunt force injuries to the victim by hitting her abdomen multiple times and forcefully kicking her stomach.

He added that he had intentionally targeted her stomach because he wanted to "teach her a lesson" for "having so much problem peeing or passing motion".

SYABILLA ON HER TWIN SONS

Syabilla told the court that her twin sons, who weighed about 15kg each, liked to sit on her stomach when she was pregnant with her fourth child. They would often bounce on it, and she had seen her sons sit on the victim's stomach during their rough play. 

This happened once in the week before the girl's death, and another time in the six months before, she testified. On the first occasion, the twins stopped bouncing on the victim's stomach when their mother screamed at them, while on the second occasion, they stopped when the victim shouted.

Syabilla said she did not feel there was a need to take the girl to the doctor on these occasions as she did not say anything, "so I thought she's okay".

"After those two occasions, did she complain to you?" asked the prosecutor.

"She did make a complaint but I ignored her," answered Syabilla.

The girl also sustained bruises from playing with her brothers, such as when they slammed a door and caused a bruise to form on her head the week before her death.

Questioned by the defence lawyer, Syabilla said her children played "very rough", and would injure each other on occasion.

Salihin's stepmother took the stand briefly and said Salihin treated the victim the same as he treated the twins, who were his biological children. She added that he treated the victim "as his own daughter".

The trial resumes on Thursday. If convicted of murder, Salihin could be sentenced either to death or life imprisonment and caning.