ABUSE IN CHILDREN'S HOME
TORTURED BECAUSE OF A PLAYFUL PRANK
Boy made to strip and squat as welfare home's supervisor pours urine on his head
He's worst abused among 12 boys who spoke to us during a 3-week investigation
SLASHED WITH PEN
BECAUSE OF JOKING REMARK
By Mindy Tan and Zaibaidah Nazeer
April 02, 2007
IT IS hard to imagine a sadder tale that Singapore journalists can uncover.
Children left in the care of an established welfare home are tortured with impunity by their caregivers.
Their silent screams bounce off the walls for years.
One 12-year-old boy is brutally choked when he's lifted off the ground by his neck by an enraged childcare supervisor in a chilling incident a year ago.
He also drenched a boy with urine - over a playful prank.
The man was later dismissed by the children's home but the abuses have continued, alleged the boys.
A source tipped off The New Paper on Sunday.
What happened behind closed doors was so stunning that it was clear a discreet and sensitive approach would be needed to uncover the truth.
We spoke to 12 of the 25 residents in the home. We interviewed them separately outside the home. Eleven claimed they had been abused and a 12th boy corroborated their accounts.
After three weeks of investigation, we alerted the police and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.
An official probe is underway. Meanwhile, here are the painful stories related by the tortured teenage boys.
TORTURE BY URINE
The welfare home, set up to care for and educate kids of hard-up parents or guardians, is not being identified to protect the identities of the innocent children. All the names have been changed.
Listening to the kids' tales of violent and harsh physical punishment over the last two years, one boy's story stands out.
Adam, 12, claims that he suffered like no other.
He once had urine poured on his head as punishment in November 2005.
First, he was made to strip down to his underwear, squat over a toilet, and tuck his hand behind his knees.
His childcare supervisor, Ja (not his real name), then poured urine over the then-10-year-old's head.
It was Adam's punishment for a playful prank in the toilet - he had peed on his friend while they were in the toilet together.
Adam had queued up with other boys to enter the 2nd-floor staff toilet to wash themselves in the evening. Three boys went in together each time.
When it was Adam's turn, he decided to 'shoot' some urine onto a younger boy standing beside him.
The younger boy cried and immediately complained to their supervisor, Ja.
Adam said: 'He asked me, 'You like urine so much, right?' '
Then, the supervisor yelled to the other boys waiting outside, asking for volunteers to urinate into a blue drinking cup.
Two boys entered the toilet and each urinated into the cup, filling it to the brim, and handed it to Ja.
Ja summoned Adam back into the toilet and closed the door.
Adam claimed he was told to remove his clothes but to leave his underwear on.
Recalling the incident, the wide-eyed Primary 6 boy said he obeyed for fear of a beating.
Urine was then slowly poured over his head as he crouched, shivering, above a squat toilet.
Despite the boy's pleas, Ja allegedly continued pouring it till the cup was empty.
'I said 'sorry, sorry'. I said 'please don't do like this' but he did not listen,' claimed Adam.
By this time, more boys had gathered, causing a commotion.
Said Adam: 'Everybody was outside... I could hear other boys laughing.'
A 13-year-old boy who spoke separately to The New Paper on Sunday verified the incident.
'He (the supervisor) asked us to urinate into the cup. Then I saw him pouring the urine over Adam.'
When the ordeal was over, Ja opened the door slightly and asked the 13-year-old boy to fetch new clothes for Adam.
Adam's brother, Sam, 14, a Sec2 student, ran down from his third-storey dormitory after hearing the commotion.
He said: 'My brother was crying and crying. I ran to hug him.
'Everybody thought that was the end of the punishment.'
Ja then aimed a hose at Adam, despite the boy's plea to let him 'bathe himself.'
Adam said: 'I felt it was disgusting. It's filthy.'
The New Paper on Sunday spoke to 10 boys on different occasions - each confirmed the incident and the identity of the victim.
A more brutal action of the same supervisor was related by Nazri, 12.
The boy was almost choked to death when he was grabbed by the neck and lifted off the ground in at least two incidents about a year ago.
'HE STRANGLED ME'
The skinny, 1.3m tall, Pri6 student said: 'Ja strangled me.'
Nazri said he was late for an outing one day. He did not have shoes so he wore his slippers instead.
This provoked the fury of Ja, who said 'cannot, cannot' and dragged him back to his dormitory.
Then came Nazri's punishment.
He claimed: 'He (Ja) strangled my neck, then he pulled me up. He pushed me to the cupboard.'
According to Nazri, Ja had used both his 'giant' hands to choke him, the force of which pushed him backwards.
He added: 'When Ja strangled me, I pushed his hand. I said 'go away, it's my business if I want to wear slippers.'
Asked if he thought he was naughty, Nazri, who said he has been living there since he was 4, shrugged.
He often cries when he's alone, but says he doesn't know why.
And he doesn't know if he wants to stay on at the welfare home. But he may have no choice - his sick mother cannot take care of him and his father is dead.
The New Paper on Sunday understands that at least two other boys have been victims of such strangling attacks.
Amir, 12, claimed he saw Ja grab his younger brother, who was aged 9 at the time, in the same manner 'for about three seconds.'
Amir said: 'He didn't lock the door and I wanted to go in to ask something.
'Suddenly I saw my brother being choked (against a cupboard in an officer's room).'
He ran away.
It is understood that Ja has since been dismissed. This came after he punched and kicked an 8-year-old boy, who was admitted to the hospital for more than a week.
The boys also claimed that a current childcare supervisor, Sly (not his real name), also punished them harshly.
Sam pointed to a scar on his neck when we spoke to him.
He claimed he was 'slashed' last year in the dining hall in the presence of the other boys, who also spoke of the same incident.
Sam had laughed at Sly because his cap was tilted.
It was tongue-in-cheek, said Sam, but Sly took it seriously and allegedly dug the tip of a pen which he was holding across Sam's neck.
Sam said: 'I just got up and washed the blood away with water.'
He paused for a moment, resigned, as his spectacles slowly slid down his nose. The shelter would be his home until he enters National Service, said Sam.
His father is dead, his mother is in prison and his elder sister has been repatriated to India as her visa had expired.
His sister was in the dark about the abuses until The New Paper on Sunday spoke to her.
Irfan, 14, who had been in the shelter for four years till last year, related horror stories when we met him at home three weeks ago.
He was allegedly beaten up a few times by Ja, who had also banged his head against the lift door, for a minor incident over a year ago that he cannot remember.
His account was corroborated by another boy who spoke to The New Paper on Sunday separately.
Apparently, Irfan had left for school earlier than usual but he did not ask for permission to do so.
Irfan claimed he was slapped on his head with so much force that his ears rang.
Another time, he was grabbed by the shirt and thrown against the mirror near the lobby of the shelter.
The mirror cracked, he claimed.
Though he did not bleed, there was a bump on his head.
He said: 'I feel like they are wrong, because they have no right to touch us.'
'Sometimes we don't make mistakes. Nor are we in the wrong, but we still get scolded.'
Irfan added: 'I got scolded vulgarities. Once, my brother was out of the home and he came to visit me. One of the supervisors did not allow this. He said to my brother, 'this is not your father's house'.
'He talked bad about my brother while I was still inside. When he scolded me, he referred to my brother too... he used bad words lah...
'Like 'son of a...'
Irfan's voice trailed off.
At times, the shelter was a 'cowboy' town, another 12-year-old said.
'When Sly does the 'cowboy', he can be everywhere, even in the (parade) square.
'(With the hanger), he bish-bish-bish.'
Boys, some as young as pre-schoolers, have been made to stand-in-line facing the wall. They were hit on their heads if they were late for prayers.
At least five boys confirmed this.
SLAPPED TILL THEY FELL OVER
Sometimes, they were slapped so hard, they fall over.
Amir said: 'If one person misbehaves, all (of us) must do punishment.
'He smacks all of us on the face...very hard. One of the big boys dodged and he hit the boy even harder.
'The big boy fell down, but he did not cry. He kept quiet.'
The New Paper on Sunday later spoke to this 'big boy', a secondary 2 student.
He could not recall the particular incident because slapping incidences are too common. He added that he remembers being strangled.
Said Adam: 'That time everybody scared of Ja because he got choke people, he got throw people. His hand is like elephant.
'Now, we have Sly... he asks everybody line-up two-by-two, then beats us one-by-one on our heads.'
The boy placed his palm on his cheeks to describe the frequent and forceful slaps.
The situation wasn't this bad a few years ago, recalled Amir, who has been in the orphanage for seven years.
He said: 'Before that all the big boys take care of us. We obeyed the big boys' rules.'
He related the slapping incidents to his mother, a housewife.
She wanted to complain after witnessing a boy being slapped hard, but never got around to doing it. (see report on Page 6)
Amir said: 'My mother said to me, never mind, let it go, don't keep it in your heart.'
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Tortured Because Of a Playful Prank 
