From March to November 2020, an 11-year-old Singaporean girl, whose name was withheld due to a gag order, was physically abused by her stepfather Mohamad Fazli Selamat and mother Roslinda Jamil inside their Jurong flat. The girl died on 10 November 2020, four days after Fazli used an exercise bar to batter her multiple times on the head, and Roslinda reportedly did not intervene. Fazli, an auxiliary police officer, and Roslinda were both arrested and charged with murder after the girl's death came to light. Eventually, the charges of murder against the couple were downgraded to manslaughter and multiple other counts of child abuse; Roslinda became the first person to be charged with allowing the death of her daughter in the same household, pursuant to a new law aimed to curb child abuse since 2020. After pleading guilty to their respective charges, the couple was sentenced in February 2024 to jail terms ranging from seven years to nearly 16 years, with Fazli additionally given 12 strokes of the cane for the manslaughter of his stepdaughter.
Background The girl was born in Singapore in 2009 when her mother, Roslinda Jamil, was only 16 years old. Roslinda had the child with her then-boyfriend, whose identity was unknown. The girl grew up under her mother's care, and Roslinda had to work as a cashier, a clerk, a food delivery rider and an early childhood assistant teacher to support herself and her daughter. Roslinda married her first husband in 2013, and had two more sons, but the first husband was reportedly abusive. Roslinda eventually filed for divorce at and had joint custody of her sons. Roslinda later met an auxiliary police officer named Mohamad Fazli Selamat, and they began their romantic relationship in May 2019 before moving in together in October 2019. Fazli and Roslinda married in April 2020, and Roslinda gave birth to Fazli's first and only biological child - a son - in August 2020. Roslinda's daughter, as well as Roslinda's two sons from her first marriage, went to live with their mother and stepfather at a flat in Jurong.
From March to November 2020, the girl was abused by her stepfather and mother. According to court documents and the couple's statements, Fazli was unhappy with his stepdaughter for eating slowly and believed that the girl had misbehaved and stolen items from their home. On one day in March 2020, Fazli punished the girl by ordering her to stand on a table and hold a 1.5-litre water bottle at shoulder level, and while she did so, Fazli used a belt and cane to beat her for 20 to 30 minutes, resulting in her sustaining multiple bruises on her arms, buttocks, thighs and legs. A few days after the violent assault, Fazli's family members discovered the bruises and they scolded Fazli for abusing the girl and Roslinda for not stopping him, but the abuse continued. As part of the ill-treatment, Fazli made the girl perform physical exercises as punishment. Fazli would often use items such as a wooden backscratcher, an exercise bar and a cane to beat her whenever she misbehaved, such as sleeping instead of studying or making errors while doing her homework. Fazli and Roslinda would force the victim to eat chilli padi until she vomited to punish her. On one occasion, Roslinda also scalded her daughter with hot water, causing blisters to the child's skin.
Between 26 August and 28 October 2020, the child did not go to school because Fazli and Roslinda feared that the abuse would be discovered by the teachers, which may in turn lead to retribution from the authorities. Two school representatives arrived on 26 September 2020 to visit the girl and check on her, but the couple did not allow them to enter, thus narrowly evading detection of the abuse. On 15 October 2020, a student welfare officer from the school managed to persuade the girl's parents to let them have a video call with the girl, and an officer from the Child Protective Service (CPS) accompanied the welfare officer throughout the call, which the girl made inside a room of her flat with dim lighting. During the call, the CPS officer did not notice any signs of abuse from the victim, who was then wearing long-sleeved clothes and the room itself was poorly lit.
Death of the victim On 6 November 2020, Fazli noticed that his stepdaughter was again eating her food slowly and, feeling incensed at the sight of this, Fazli repeatedly used the exercise bar to bludgeon the girl on the head until she fell unconscious. Roslinda witnessed the assault but did not intervene. After the assault, Fazli tried to wake her up by sprinkling water on her face, reciting prayers and repeatedly calling her, and two minutes later, the girl responded and woke up. Fazli noticed that his stepdaughter was bleeding from her right ear and her head was swollen, and this caused him to panic and realize that she required medical attention. Although Fazli and his wife discussed whether to take the girl to hospital, they decided to not do so, as they could not come up with an excuse to explain the injuries she sustained. While Fazli was out for work, the girl felt dizzy and vomited on her mattress.
During the early morning of 7 November 2020, Roslinda found that her daughter had blood in her ear, and informed her husband about it, but Fazli told her that it was nothing. Later that day, after Fazli returned home, he and his wife discovered bruises on the victim's arms and back. Fazli asked his stepdaughter to clench and unclench her fists repeatedly, and while the child complied, she avoided using her right hand. Fazli was enraged at this as he wanted his stepdaughter to use her right hand as well to "recover faster through better blood circulation", and wanted the girl to get into a push-up position to discipline her, but the victim was unable to do so and kept falling. This provoked Fazli into grabbing the exercise bar and used it to beat her on the back.
Two days later, on 9 November 2020, the girl cried out in pain when her mother massaged her arms, and Roslinda reportedly bit her thrice to stop her from crying. The victim was found to be in a grim and weak state when Fazli returned home from work, and Fazli apologized to her for the assault. The girl's situation worsened the following day and she told her mother that she was in pain and feeling dizzy. At around 10.20am on that morning itself, the girl tried to stand up but she failed to and she collapsed on the floor, becoming unresponsive. Roslinda tried to wake her daughter up and even slapped her face, but the girl did not respond. Roslinda sought the help of her neighbour, who noticed that Roslinda's daughter did not show any signs of life when checking her pulse. An ambulance was later contacted and paramedics rushed the girl to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. In spite of efforts to revive her, the 11-year-old girl was pronounced dead at 12:40 pm. At the time of her death, the deceased was about 1.34m tall and weighed about 20 kg, and an autopsy report revealed that there were multiple injuries on the girl, which included skull and rib fractures, bite marks, bruises all over her body, and blunt force injuries on her head, face, chest, hips and limbs. The cause of death was the fatal head injuries sustained by the girl as a result of the exercise bar attack inflicted upon her by her stepfather.
Murder charge Shortly after the death of the girl at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, the police were alerted to the unnatural death, and they arrested both Roslinda Jamil and Mohamad Fazli Selamat on suspicion of causing the death of the victim. Although Fazli and Roslinda initially lied to the hospital authorities, saying that the girl had fallen down the stairs while she was skateboarding a few days prior to her death, both of them eventually confessed during police interrogation that they were responsible for murdering the girl. On 11 November 2020, the police released a media statement in relation to the girl's murder, and announced that the couple would be charged in court the following day with murder.
On 12 November 2020, Mohamad Fazli Selamat and Roslinda Jamil, both 26 years old, were charged with the murder of the 11-year-old girl. As the charge of murder faced by the couple was of one with common intention, which was under Section 302(1) read with Section 34 of the Penal Code, if they were found guilty, both Roslinda and Fazli would be sentenced to death. A court order was imposed to prohibit the media from naming the victim publicly, as well as both Roslinda and Fazli, to protect the identity of the girl's brothers. In court, after the charge sheet was presented to them, Roslinda and Fazli reportedly asked for bail and wanted to see their children, and Roslinda stated her oldest son was about to start Primary One the following year and she needed to complete the necessary documents to facilitate his schooling. Although this request was denied due to the law prohibiting murder suspects from being granted bail in Singapore, District Judge Tan Jen Tse informed the couple that their requests would be accordingly processed and provided the necessary assistance by the investigating officer.
After their indictment, both Fazli and Roslinda were detained on remand without bail while awaiting trial for the homicide. The couple were also remanded into police custody for one week after their indictment to assist in investigations, and the police would also re-visit the scene of crime and recover evidence. Also, the two sons from Roslinda's previous marriage were placed under the care of her ex-husband, while the couple's biological son was arranged for under foster care.
Trial and sentencing Plea of guilt On 27 February 2023, both 28-year-old Mohamad Fazli Selamat and 29-year-old Roslinda Jamil stood trial at the High Court for killing the 11-year-old girl, and the trial was presided over by Justice Pang Khang Chau. By then, the charges of murder against both Roslinda and Fazli had been reduced to lesser offences relating to the abuse and death of the girl, which allowed them to avoid the death penalty for murdering the girl. Fazli pleaded guilty to five counts of child abuse and one count of manslaughter, and consented to have the remaining 11 other charges taken into consideration during sentencing, while Roslinda pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse and one count of allowing the unlawful death of her daughter in the same household. Roslinda was the first person since 2020 to be convicted of allowing the death of a child in the same household, in accordance to a newly enacted law under the Children and Young Persons Act (CYPA).
Submissions On 5 July 2023, the defence and prosecution began to make submissions on sentence. The prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Ng Jun Chong, Jonathan Lee and Kumaresan Gohulabalan, sought a sentence of eight to 12 years’ jail for Roslinda on the grounds that her inaction was one of the main causes of her daughter's death, and should she have intervened, the death of her daughter would have been averted. For Fazli, the prosecution was seeking 14 to 17 years’ jail and at least 12 strokes of the cane, describing the fatal attack on the victim as an "unprovoked, persistent and callous" attack that was unwarranted and disproportionate to a simple and trivial matter.