SERDANG, Aug 14 — He was said to be a doting father and his five-year-old son was the apple of his eye, but was under the influence of drugs and that had led him to do the unthinkable — killing his son with a parang.
According to relatives at the crime scene, the man slashed the boy, aged five, thrice, on his head and on his right wrist, because he was hallucinating — there were voices in his head telling him to kill his son.
“I just cannot believe that he killed his son. He has always been a loving, caring father… a good person,” said a 46-year-old cousin of the father.
The boy’s father had turned down an aunt’s offer to look after his son because he loved the boy and wanted to take care of him, the cousin added.
In the 4.40pm incident yesterday, the 35-year-old father had slashed his son while the boy was asleep at their fourth floor flat in Puchong Permai.
Police arrested the man at his flat. He tested positive for drugs and had a record of drug-related offences.
The boy’s mother, a 24-year-old sales assistant at a shopping mall in Puchong, was too distraught to speak.
A neighbour, aged 46, said she was about to go to work when a child from another unit alerted her about the boy who was lying along the corridor.
She said that she called another neighbour who had then called the authorities.
The boy and his father were friendly, she said, adding that they had moved into the flat about two months ago.
An elderly woman who is the immediate neighbour said the boy often came to her house to play with her grandchildren.
She said she had never seen or heard the victim being mistreated or abused by his parents.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail took to Twitter to express her sadness over the boy’s death at the hands of his father who was under the influence of drugs.
She added that the incident was a lesson to all parties to stand firm in combating drug abuse.
Subang Jaya District Police Chief, Assistant Commissioner Mohammad Azlin Sadari said the post-mortem on the victim was completed at 1.30pm and his remains would be taken to Karak where he would be buried at the Kampung Kroh Cemetery, later today.
He said that the boy’s father had been remanded for seven days. — Bernama
