THE 7-year-old boy turned up in school with a black eye.

Peter (not his real name) had allegedly been punched by his stepfather and ended up in hospital.

The hospital reported the matter to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), and the Child Protection Service (CPS) is now investigating the case.

We are not publishing the real names of the parties involved as Peter is a minor.

His biological father, Mr David, is upset over the incident, but his mother, Madam Jane, claims the punch was an accident.

She said her current husband did not mean to hit the boy. He had wanted to hit her, but missed, and the blow landed on Peter instead.

Madam Jane, 32, and Mr David, 33, have two other children, daughters aged 12 and10. Their divorce was finalised in 2005, and she remarried later that year.

Mr David was given custody of Peter and the elder daughter, but all three children live with their mother and stepfather.

The incident happened on Saturday, 19 Sep, the eve of Hari Raya Puasa.

Madam Jane, a kitchen helper, told The New Paper that she and her husband had got into a heated argument that day.

She claimed he lunged at her, but she managed to dodge his blow. She said that the follow-through landed on Peter’s face. She was sitting at the time and the boy was sitting to her right.

Madam Jane said it was the first time she had seen her husband so angry.

“He had never laid hands on me before,” she said.

She claimed her husband apologised to her and Peter immediately.

She said she did not take Peter to a doctor for treatment as he had no visible injury. But the next morning, she noticed a bruise on his left eye.

While the family went out on some visits, Madam Jane said, Peter vomited twice, so she took him home to rest.

Again, she did not take Peter to a doctor as he appeared fine after resting.

The next day, Mr David, a security officer, turned up at the house to take Peter out.

He noticed the black eye as well as “red spots that looked like blood clots” in his right eye.

When he asked Peter about the injuries, his son said he had got into a fight with a friend. Mr David claimed Madam Jane told him the same thing.

He said: “When I said his injury did not look like it came from a punch thrown by a child, but from an adult, my son kept quiet.

“I kept asking my ex-wife, and she finally said it was her husband who punched my boy accidentally while they were quarrelling.”

Mr David claimed Peter was not his usual self that day.

“He had no appetite and was very quiet. When I gave him food, he said he felt like vomiting and did not eat much.

“He’s usually active, talkative and naughty.”

He claimed that when he asked his daughters about what happened, the details given by them were unclear.

He alleged that Madam Jane had told them not to talk about the incident. Mr David also alleged his elder daughter sustained a small bump on the left side of her head from the same incident.

He claimed the Primary 6 pupil had told him that when she tried to intervene in the argument, her stepfather had pushed her.

She bumped her head as a result.

When we asked Madam Jane about this, she claimed that nothing of the sort had happened.

Mr David said Peter’s school contacted him on 23 Sep about his son’s injury.

Accompanied by school counsellors, Mr David took his son to the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) for a check-up.

The boy is now living with his maternal grandmother.

When The New Paper visited Peter at the hospital on 24 Sep, Mr David showed us two small scars on the boy’s right knee.

He claimed Peter had told him they were caused by his stepfather with a lighter.

Hyperactive

Madam Jane told us she did not know how the scars came about, but she gave a possible reason.

She said Peter is a hyperactive kid who had once played with a lighter and ended up setting fire to the sofa.

“Everyone (her relatives) is blaming me and my husband and saying I never protect my son. It’s up to them whether to believe me or not,” she said.

“It’s ridiculous to say my husband abused my son. It was just an accident.

“I’m the boy’s mother. If he really hit my son on purpose, I would have left him and made a police report.

“My husband pampers my son with toys and buys him everything. Even I don’t pamper him like that.

“If I’m not around, I trust him to look after my kids.”

Attempts to contact her husband through Madam Jane were unsuccessful.

When contacted, an MCYS spokesman said KKH had referred Peter’s case to the ministry and it was being investigated. She added that the CPS would conduct a thorough investigation into the case, “focusing on the safety and care needs of both the child and the family”.

This article was first published in The New Paper.