Former e-hailing driver sentenced to 8½ years for abusing toddler and forcing him to eat feces

In Johor Baru, former e-hailing driver Chan Wen Jie, 32, was handed an eight-year-six-month jail term after admitting to abusing a three-year-old boy, including forcing the child to consume his own feces from a disposable diaper. Judicial Commissioner Datuk Abdul Fareed Abdul Gapoor sentenced Chan under Section 31(1) of the Child Act 2001, with the term to run from his arrest on 3 Oct 2022, and imposed a three-year good-behaviour bond with a surety and 36 hours of community service within six months.

CCTV recordings presented in court documented the boy being struck, made to do squats, forced to stand for long periods, whipped, and subjected to the feces-eating episode, which the judge described as uncivilised and wholly unacceptable. The defence’s claim that Chan was disciplining the child as he would his own was rejected, and the judge noted that Chan had breached the trust of the child’s father, who had entrusted him with care.

Although a murder charge under Section 302 had been withdrawn, the court focused on the abuse conviction when determining the sentence. Prosecutors Edelynn Wong and Nordiana Zubir led the case, while Chan was represented by lawyer K. Sarawanakumar.