SOURCE: The New Paper

WHAT kind of man would repeatedly hit his 23-month-old baby girl and cause her death?

An incensed one perhaps but not insane, the High Court was told yesterday.

Given an IQ test after his arrest over his baby’s death, Sallehan Allaudin apparently decided he wasn’t going to bother.

Ms Velda Chen, a clinical psychologist from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) and Woodbridge Hospital, testified that when she administered the IQ test to ascertain Sallehan’s IQ, he did not put in much effort in answering the questions.

When she confronted him, he told her: “I anyhow do.”

Sallehan’s lawyer, Mr N Kanagavijayan, had argued that his client was “mentally disturbed about the murder charge” during the test.

But Ms Chen said she did not notice any signs of distress from him.

Nor was he distressed in court when he was shown pictures of his baby girl, Natalie Nikie Alisyia Sallehan.

When pictures of his daughter, were flashed in court on Monday and yesterday, Sallehan glanced at them and showed no emotion.

The same pictures prompted the girl’s grandmother to burst into tears.

During her testimony, Ms Chen said the test showed that Sallehan has an IQ of 69, which places him at the high end of the mild mental retardation range.

But she qualified that he did not display the signs and symptoms of a mild mentally retarded person.

Dr Stephen Phang Boon Chye, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at IMH and Woodbridge Hospital, echoed her point.

He said he examined Sallehan on five occasions, and noted an “obvious dissonance” between the IQ test result and what he observed.

“The IQ test result of 69 was unable to truly reflect his level of actual intellectual functioning,” said Dr Phang.

He explained that Sallehan told him that whenever he felt stressed, he would play with his portable video game machine.

“He would go to the computer shop and download the games. These games require coordination and they challenge visual-spatial skills,” said DrPhang.

Hence, he said, it is “very unlikely” that Sallehan is “intellectually disabled or retarded”.

Citing another example, DrPhang said that Sallehan’s pay was about $800 a month.

Once, he received $500 and confronted his company over it.

He was told that the pay he received was after deduction of CPF contributions.

Dr Phang said: “The accused said that after deducting what he needed for transport, he calculated that it was not worth his while to work there.

“He may not have been book-smart, but he was certainly street-smart.”

When asked by Deputy Public Prosecutor Stella Tan if Sallehan displayed any symptoms of a mild mentally retarded person, Dr Phang replied: “Not at all.”

Sallehan had left school halfway through his primary five education because of a lack of interest in his studies.

After completing his National Service in 2004, he worked as a cleaner, kitchen cleaner and deliveryman, but could not hold down his jobs for long, partly because of “inter-personal conflicts”.

And what of the conflict on 6 Jan when his daughter died?

Justice Lee Seiu Kin asked Dr Phang to “throw some light on the behaviour exhibited” by Sallehan when he flew into a rage the day he allegedly killed his daughter.

Dr Phang answered: “I can only reasonably tell this court that he was incensed, but he was not insane.

“This was not the first time that the victim had played with and spoilt his cigarettes.

“Fundamentally, he said he was very frustrated, and he had (previously) sternly instructed her not to do it again.”

Dr Phang added that Sallehan was upset that the girl was eating the cigarettes as “it might appear that he wasn’t feeding her properly”.

‘Lost his temper’

“There was a gradual build-up of frustration on his part, an escalation of his anger. He basically lost his temper and assaulted the victim,” said the psychiatrist.

Justice Lee asked: “He lost it, so to speak?”

Replied DrPhang: “Yes, Your Honour.”

Dr Phang also repeated in court the story that Sallehan told him of that tragic day.

Sallehan had returned home and saw Nikie playing with and eating about four or five of his cigarettes.

She had broken about 10 sticks.

It was not the first time she had done this. Two days earlier, she had been caught eating a cigarette.

Sallehan, who sports a tattoo on his right hand, said that he slapped Nikie three or four times, and punched her another three or four times on her upper and mid back.

He told Dr Phang: “I just wanted to scold her but she (cried), so I just gave her a few slaps... to teach her a lesson so she won’t be so naughty.”

He added that he only punched the girl’s back with “medium” punches because “the back is stronger than other parts”.

Sallehan also told Dr Phang: “Which father will want to kill his daughter?”

For the previous report, click here.