Man charged with murdering daughter on Father's Day

A 35-year-old man was charged with murdering his two-year-old daughter on Father's Day.

Johnboy John Teo was charged yesterday in hospital, where he and his daughter, Ashley Clare Teo, two, were taken after police found them in his Sengkang flat on Sunday.

Police officers who responded to a call for assistance at Block 163B Rivervale Crescent at 10.24pm found the toddler lying motionless in a bedroom.

They also found Teo injured in the 11th-storey flat, but details of his injuries have not been made public.

Both were taken to Sengkang General Hospital, where Ashley was pronounced dead in the early hours of Monday.

According to Chinese evening daily Shin Min Daily News, Teo is divorced, with the custody of Ashley given to the mother in March.

His ex-wife, who identified herself only as Ms Cheok, had reportedly moved out of their marital home with Ashley about a month ago.

Ms Cheok, who is believed to be a human resource executive, told Shin Min she last saw her daughter on Saturday afternoon and that Teo had visitation rights to Ashley on Sunday.

THOUGHTFUL CHILD

Describing her daughter as a bundle of joy, Ms Cheok told Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao that she was a thoughtful child who would remember what her classmates liked and often told her teacher that her mother's favourite colour was purple.

She said: "My daughter would've celebrated her third birthday in October. We'd already planned for it and would be inviting her father."

Their babysitter told Wanbao that she was a very well behaved child.

"She was easy to look after. She was very adorable and wouldn't cry and make noise," said the babysitter, who was not named.

Ms Cheok told Shin Min: "I've always told her to be strong when faced with obstacles, and now, I will be strong for her."

According to Wanbao, Ms Cheok was seen outside the autopsy room yesterday afternoon, hugging a pink unicorn toy. Ashley was later cremated at Mandai Crematorium.

PROFILE

According to Teo's LinkedIn profile, he has been a system specialist at NCS, an IT and engineering firm, for the past five years.

The profile also showed that he graduated from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) in 2003 with a National ITE Certificate in Mechanical Servicing, before attaining a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Singapore Polytechnic in 2009.

Further checks online revealed that he was also active in competitive Taekwondo, having been an assistant coach while he was still in polytechnic.

He was listed as a coach of a private university's Taekwondo group in 2016.

According to Teo's social media profile, he first met Ms Cheok in 2006. They got married in October 2015.

The couple had previously come up with Korean names for themselves which they then used on their social media profiles.

The couple had also participated together in a family day event at Ashley's childcare centre the day before the incident, reported Wanbao.

Teo's case has been adjourned to July 9.

If convicted of murder, he will face the death penalty.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY GOH RUOXUE