Singapore court fines ex-behavioural therapist S$5,000 for hurting boy, 4, with special needs

Centre · 2A Singapore court on Wednesday 28 October 2026 fined Tricia Lee Hsien, a 29-year-old Singaporean and former behavioural therapist, S$5,000 (US$3,900) for hurting a four-year-old boy with special needs. 1 2 Centre · 1She pleaded guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a minor. 1 Centre · 2Lee worked at an autism centre that cannot be named because of a court gag order protecting the victim's identity; from February 2024 she gave the boy, who has a background of Asperger's syndrome, lessons twice a week in his bedroom, where his parents had installed a CCTV camera. 1 2

Centre · 1The prosecutor said the parents did not intervene during lessons, even when the boy cried or threw tantrums, because they trusted Lee to manage him. 1 Centre · 2The offence took place during a lesson that began at 3pm on 13 June 2024. At about 5.25pm, as Lee read him a book, the boy fidgeted and she told him to adopt the "quiet hands" position, a method she had been trained to use; he did not comply and hit her in the face, knocking off her glasses. 1 2 Centre · 2Lee swung her left hand downwards twice in an aggressive manner and threw the book on the floor, on the table and against the wall. The boy hit her face again and, after being told not to, hit her a third time and grabbed her spectacles. 1 2

Centre · 2Lee then took the glasses back, grabbed the boy's hand and dragged him off his chair onto the bedroom floor, causing him bodily pain; the acts were captured on CCTV. 1 2 Centre · 1She carried the boy out and told his father he had hit her; the father ended the session after failing to calm his son. 1 Centre · 2The boy's mother later reviewed the CCTV footage and was shocked. She contacted the centre, whose principal assured her Lee would be dismissed, and then reported the matter to police. The boy was taken to hospital and assessed to be normal with no gross external injuries, and Lee was fired and investigated. 1 2

Centre · 2Deputy Public Prosecutor Darren Ang sought a fine of S$5,000 to S$6,000 rather than a harsher penalty. He called it an "exceptional case" because, although child abuse offences are serious, the harm and Lee's culpability were low, there were no documented injuries, and the act was isolated and lasted "mere seconds". 1 2 Centre · 1Defence lawyer Low Cheong Yeow said Lee meant to take the boy to his father in the living room for help calming him, but had not thought through what she did. 1 Centre · 1Principal District Judge Toh Yung Cheong accepted that Lee's culpability was low because she acted only after being hit, but said that as a behavioural therapist aware of the boy's condition she could have taken other steps. 1

Centre · 2The offence carried up to three years' jail, a fine of up to S$5,000, or both; because the victim was under 14, Lee faced up to double those maximum penalties. 1 2