S’porean hired to teach primary school pupils starved them, forced one 6-year-old to drink urine
Andrew Wong
The Straits Times
July 9, 2026
Hired by his aunt to teach primary school mathematics and English, a man beat his pupils with a clothes hanger, punched and starved them.
He even forced a boy to drink his own urine.
On July 9, the 31-year-old Singaporean, who cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the identity of the children, pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse.
He was also convicted of one count of voluntarily causing grievous hurt, and one count of providing false or misleading information to the Ministry of Manpower.
He will be sentenced on Aug 21.
The man’s aunt ran an educational facility which provided accommodation for students and workers, as well as management consultancy services for foreign students. He was hired to work as a manager in 2016.
He was responsible for taking care of students staying at the facility, taught the primary school pupils and checked on their homework.
Court documents show the man got the job despite not having any childcare or teaching qualifications.
The prosecution said he would punish a six-year-old male Chinese national pupil regularly, after the boy moved into the facility in January 2023.
The boy had to hold himself in a push-up position for long periods of time as punishment, was hit with a hanger, slept in the toilet, and could consume only bread and water.
On March 9, 2023, the man asked the boy to get into a push-up position while studying English. The boy held the position for over an hour before he cried out that he was hungry.
The man allowed other students to eat their dinner while the boy was in a push-up position from 3.45pm until the next morning. The man punched and stomped on the boy at 1.15am, even in that position.
Between 2am and 7am, the man placed a chair on the boy and sat on it, forcing him to lower his body in the push-up position.
Forced to drink urine
When the boy needed to use the toilet, the man forced him to urinate into the basin and made him drink the urine when he was thirsty.
At around 6am on March 10, 2023, he called and spoke to the boy’s father to seek permission to discipline him, which the father allowed. The man did not mention physically punishing the son, nor did he tell the father about what he had already inflicted on the boy.
The man did not allow the boy to go to school on March 10, 2023, and abused him throughout the day with a hanger or his hands. At one point, the hanger broke, and he stomped on the child.
In the evening, the child became too weak to stand, so the man carried him to the toilet and sprayed water on him.
When the man’s aunt returned at 7pm, she told him to stop the abuse, but he continued hitting and kicking the child. He only stopped when his aunt carried the boy out of the toilet.
The prosecution said the boy’s abuse on March 10, 2023, lasted around 18 hours. The man prevented his aunt from sending the boy to the hospital as he was afraid of being arrested.
But his aunt did so on March 14, 2023, when he complained of breathing difficulties.
There, doctors said the boy’s vital signs were severely abnormal, and he was immediately transferred to the children’s intensive care unit where he remained until March 28, 2023.
The boy had suffered from lung injury caused by blunt force to his chest, which led to a build-up of fluids in his lungs. He also had kidney failure caused by blunt force to his back, which required nine days of dialysis.
Other injuries included muscle breakdown, severe hypertension caused by kidney failure, and multiple rib fractures.
He was eventually discharged on April 28, 2023.
Other victims
The man also abused other children.
In January 2023, he told an 11-year-old male Chinese national pupil to complete his mathematics homework over a public holiday.
He became angry after spotting mistakes and forced the child into a push-up position for around three hours. During that incident, the man hit him with a hanger at least six times for failing to maintain the position.
On a separate occasion on March 1, 2023, the man was helping a 10-year-old male Chinese national student with his homework when he noticed that some of it was unfinished. He punched and slapped the boy at least five times.
He also forced the child into a push-up position and hit him with a hanger.
When the boy could not answer a question in his homework, the man punched him in the face multiple times, causing him to bleed.
Accusing the boy of feigning injury, he kicked and hit him with the hanger.
The boy’s teachers informed his parents on March 2, 2023, and a police report was lodged the next day. A doctor’s report recorded multiple bruises on his body.
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