Stepdad who fatally kicked girl, 4, gets life term for murder

Apex court overturns his conviction on a lesser charge after prosecution appeals

- Selina Lum

A 31-year-old man who kicked his stepdaughter in anger, killing the four-year-old, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder on April 2, after the Court of Appeal overturned his conviction on a lesser charge.

Muhammad Salihin Ismail was also sentenced by the apex court to 12 strokes of the cane.

He had gone on trial in 2021 on a charge of murder for causing the girl, Nursabrina Agustiani Abdullah, to suffer fatal abdominal injuries between Sept 1 and Sept 2, 2018, at the family's rental flat in Bukit Batok.

The girl, who was known to her family as Sabrina, was taken to hospital on the morning of Sept 2 and pronounced dead at about 10.15am.

Under Section 300(c) of the Penal Code, murder is committed where an offender has the intention to cause a bodily injury, and that injury is sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature.

In 2022, a High Court judge acquitted Salihin of murder, saying that although he had kicked the victim intentionally, there was no intention to strike the part of the body that was fatally injured.