2007 02: Dad wants abused boy home

NST online. Local News. 13/02/07

By Chuah Bee Kim

JOHOR BARU: The father of an abused four-year-old boy hopes his son could be home for the family reunion dinner in Sabak Bernam, Kuala Selangor, on the eve of Chinese New Year on Saturday.

Heng Cheow Koon, 24, who was at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital to see his son, Sunny, yesterday, said that he would like to take the boy home with him.

However, this would depend on the state Welfare Department, which will decide where to send the boy after his discharge from hospital, which is expected to be in a day or two. The hospital will also submit a medical report to the police, who will then decide on whether to charge a close relative of the boy for the alleged abuse.

Heng, a fishmonger at the Pandan wholesale market, said he had bought new clothes for Sunny and his two-year-old daughter Seline for the Chinese New Year. He said if the authorities decided to take action against the relative for abusing Sunny, he would like to have his 38-year-old newly-married brother take care of the boy.

"Sunny is a hyperactive child, unlike my daughter," he said, adding that he had told his relative on several occasions to control her temper when disciplining his son.

A neighbour had alerted the MCA Pasir Gudang division crime prevention squad about the boy’s abuse and it reported the matter to the police last Wednesday.

The MCA squad, led by its chairman Lim Thaw Siang and the police, went to a house in Taman Daya last Wednesday and rescued the boy.

It was reported that Sunny had been treated like a punching bag by a close relative over the past two years and that the beatings usually occurred at midnight.