The former e-hailing driver who abused a three-year-old boy, including forcing him to eat his own faeces, has been jailed for eight years and six months by the Johor Bahru High Court.
Chan Wen Jie, 31, was sentenced by Judicial Commissioner Datuk Abdul Fareed Abdul Gapoor on Wednesday after pleading guilty to an alternative charge under Section 31(1) of the Child Act 2001. He had initially been charged with murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code.
The court ordered Chan to serve his sentence from the date of his arrest on Oct 3, 2022. He must also enter into a three-year good behaviour bond with one surety, without security, and complete 36 hours of community service within six months.
In his ruling, the judge described forcing the child to eat his own faeces from a disposable diaper as an uncivilised and degrading act that could never be justified as a form of discipline.
The court also considered closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showing Chan subjecting the boy to various acts of cruelty, including banging his head, making him perform squats, forcing him to stand for prolonged periods and caning him.
The footage showed that the abuse went far beyond ordinary physical punishment, amounting instead to excessive and merciless treatment of a three-year-old child who was unable to protect himself, the court said.
The judge added that Chan had betrayed the trust placed in him by the boy’s father, who had entrusted him with the child’s care.
The court rejected the defence’s argument that Chan’s actions were intended to discipline the boy in the same way he disciplined his own child. It said that if Chan was unable to care for the victim, he should have returned the child to his father.
However, the court did not consider the withdrawn murder charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code or the cause of the child’s death when determining the sentence for the alternative charge.
After weighing the aggravating and mitigating factors, the court ruled that the eight-year-and-six-month jail term was appropriate, stressing the importance of protecting children from abuse.
Chan was initially charged at the Johor Bahru Magistrates’ Court with murdering Lee See Jie, who was three at the time, at a house in Jalan Ria 2, Taman Skudai Ria, Skudai, between 8pm and 8.30pm on Oct 2, 2022.
Deputy public prosecutors Edelynn Wong and Nordiana Zubir prosecuted the case, while Chan was represented by lawyers Datin Freda Sabaphaty and K. Sarawanakumar.
