As the father of twins with autism admitted to taking their lives in the Greenridge Crescent tragedy in 2022, more disturbing details of the family’s situation have come to light.
Most prominent were his suspicions that his wife may have been physically abusing their sons.
Xavier Yap also alleged that his wife had been having an affair in a tell-all letter to the court.
In an updated report today (15 Aug), Channel NewsAsia (CNA) quoted Yap’s lawyer Mr Choo Si Sen as saying that his client was undergoing divorce proceedings with his wife.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao
This purportedly culminated after many incidents, including their disagreement over their sons’ education.
According to Mr Choo, Yap was uncertain about enrolling the twins in a mainstream school and only “agreed after his wife insisted”.
Despite the boys’ struggle to cope and the school’s observation that mainstream school wasn’t suitable for them, she insisted that they remained there.
At one point, Yap spotted bruises on one son’s face and allegedly heard that his wife caused them.
Then in late 2021, he claimed his wife began behaving differently towards the family. He observed that she seemed particularly fiercer with the boys.
That was when Yap suspected that she was having an affair.
He even noticed cane marks on the boys’ bodies from Jan 2022.
Yap’s other defence lawyer Mr Patrick Nai later read his letter to the court, in which he apologised for the “mayhem and trouble” he caused.
While he was concerned for his sons, he did not realise that he had fallen into depression.
He merely felt that his wife’s “unreasonable behaviour”, including her inability to accept their conditions, had worsened his worries.
Whenever the twins fell short of her expectations of them to behave like normal kids, “physical punishments and scolding” became common, Yap wrote.
Learning of her alleged affair only aggravated his depression.
With everything weighing on his mind, Yap said he “lost faith” that his sons would be taken care of, especially when he was not around.
He thus decided to put a stop to their suffering by ending their lives. He also expected to receive a death sentence so he could “join his (my) two sons soon”.
Following his arrest, Yap allegedly found out that his wife had invited her lover to stay with her, showing no despair from losing her sons.
She had also discarded the twins’ belongings, which Yap said “crossed a boundary that he (I) can no longer tolerate”.
Looking to the future, Yap apparently plans to study social service work at the diploma or degree level. He hopes to learn from his experience as a father of children with autism and a sufferer of major depressive disorder.
The court sentenced him to 14 years in jail for culpable homicide not amounting to murder today (15 Aug).
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News.
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