SINGAPORE — A woman who left her one-year-old son in the care of her abusive boyfriend was slammed by a district judge on Friday (Nov 18) for prioritising her love life over the wellbeing of her child.

“She failed to provide her child ... with the protection that he needed. This withdrawal from her duty had dire consequences for the victim,” said District Judge Adam Nakhoda, as he sentenced the 25-year-old woman to 10 months’ jail. Both mother and son cannot be named due to a court order.

The boy, now aged three, had been repeatedly abused by his mother’s boyfriend Franklie Tan Guang Wei. The child’s ordeal came to light after Tan shoved him off the bed on March 25 last year, breaking his skull and causing bleeding in the brain. He is now in foster care.

Tan, 26, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years’ jail and six strokes of the cane in September. He intends to appeal his sentence.

A district court heard that the mother starting dating Tan in August 2014. She moved into his house with her son three months later when she discovered she was pregnant with his child.

Right after moving in, the couple was awakened one night by the cries of the child. As the mother left the room to prepare milk, Tan slapped the child in frustration, leaving finger marks and bruises on his face.

The child’s nanny noticed the injuries, but the mother lied that the child had fallen.

“If there had been no earlier warning signs that Mr Tan was potentially a danger to her child, then this incident would have driven home to the accused that it was not safe to leave the victim with him,” said DJ Nakhoda. “The accused had failed to take the chance to exercise her duty to protect her child, and instead appeared to have prioritised her relationship with Mr Tan over the well-being of the victim.”

After that incident, the Child Protective Service under the Ministry of Social and Family Development was informed, and the couple was placed on restricted access to the child.

They entered a Voluntary Care Agreement in March last year, whereby the child would stay overnight with the couple and spend the rest of the day in a childcare centre or with Tan’s grandparents. Tan was barred from unsupervised contact with the child at all times.

That month, the mother left her son alone in the bedroom with Tan, as she prepared for work. Tan was woken up by the child’s cries and hit him across the buttocks with his fist, leaving bruises.

When the child started vomiting later that day, the mother decided to withdraw him from childcare and leave him at home under the care of her boyfriend before she left for work.

Frustrated by the child’s repeated vomiting that morning, Tan pushed the baby off the bed. He later brought the child into the shower for a bath and ended up scalding him with hot water.

DJ Nakhoda pointed out that the mother had repeatedly turned a blind eye to the fact that Tan had abused and could abuse the child.

The judge said: “Instead of staying back to take care of the victim or bringing the victim to the doctor or Mr Tan’s grandparents, she decided to go to work and leave the victim in the unsupervised care of Mr Tan. She knew that Mr Tan had ill-treated by slapping, pushing and hitting the victim on numerous occasions and she knew that the victim was not supposed to be left in Mr Tan’s unsupervised care, yet she threw caution to the wind and left for work.”