A FORMER e-hailing driver has been sentenced to eight years and six months in prison for abusing a three-year-old boy, including forcing the child to eat his own faeces, in a case that a judge described as cruel, degrading and wholly unacceptable as a form of discipline.
Chan Wen Jie, 32, was sentenced after pleading guilty to an alternative charge under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 before Judicial Commissioner Datuk Abdul Fareed Abdul Gapoor.
The Johor Bharu court ordered him to serve the sentence from the date of his arrest on Oct 3, 2022.
Chan was also ordered to enter into a three-year good behaviour bond and perform 36 hours of community service within six months.
In his judgment, Abdul Fareed said closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed conduct that was uncivilised and degrading, and could not be justified as a method of disciplining a child.
“The accused not only caned the victim, but also slapped him, struck his head, made him perform squats, forced him to stand for long periods and made him eat faeces from a disposable diaper.
“Forcing a child to eat faeces is a cruel and degrading act that can never be regarded as a way to discipline a child,” he said.
The judge also rejected the defence’s argument that Chan had been disciplining the boy in the same way he disciplined his own children.
“If the accused was unable to care for the victim, he should have returned the child to his father,” he said.
In 2022, Chan was charged in the Johor Bahru Magistrates’ Court with murdering Lee See Jie, aged 3, at a house in Jalan Ria 2, Taman Skudai Ria, Skudai, between 8pm and 8.30pm on Oct 2 that year.
The murder charge was brought under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which provides for the death penalty or imprisonment of between 30 and 40 years, with at least 12 strokes of the cane if the death penalty is not imposed.
The prosecution was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutors Edelynn Wong and Nur Diyana Zubir, while Chan was represented by lawyers K. Sarawanakumar and Datin Freda Sabapathy. - October 14, 2026