Baby killed for touching dad's cigarettes

From correspondents in Singapore From: AAP October 20, 2009 6:53PM

A SINGAPOREAN man has gone on trial charged with murdering his 23-month-old daughter in a fit of rage after he caught her playing with his cigarettes, court officials said.

Sallehan Allaudin, 26, is accused of fatally beating his daughter Nikie in January ahead of her second birthday, causing her to die of a ruptured vein. If convicted, he could face death by hanging.

The High Court was told that Mr Sallehan, who had just returned home with his wife with a present for Nikie, went berserk after seeing the toddler had torn up and scattered his cigarettes, the Straits Times reported.

Mr Sallehan has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

His wife, Rozanah Mohamed Yusoff, 24, used a mannequin to show the court how Mr Sallehan allegedly kicked and stomped on their daughter in the kitchen, the newspaper said.

The couple, who have two younger daughters, called for an ambulance when Nikie started bleeding from the nose, but she died of her injuries, according to the report.

"I did not go into the kitchen to stop my husband as I thought that was the way he wanted to discipline Nikie," the wife was quoted as saying by the newspaper.