The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) has apologised over the death of four-year-old Megan Khung, who died in 2020 after suffering horrific abuse at the hands of her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.
In a press release on Thursday (23 Oct), it resolved to “do better” to ensure the safety of every child in its care.
Source: @simonboyyyyyyy on Instagram
MSF’s statement came after an independent review panel released a report on the handling of Megan’s case.
It found that while “appropriate actions” were taken by the agencies involved “in some instances”, they “could have done better” in some areas.
Also, it noted “instances of a lack of clear understanding and communication” among the agencies.
The panel listed five key findings that represented instances where they could have done better in protecting the girl.
Megan’s teachers discovered bruises on the girl on 19 March 2019.
It was noted that Beyond Social Services (BSS), the community agency that operated Megan’s playgroup, submitted an incident report about this to the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) on 5 Apr 2019 — 17 days after the bruises were observed.
This was because the preschool principal was away on overseas leave.
Source: Google Maps
The report described Megan’s injuries as bruises on her “face, arms, thighs, feet, buttocks”, and characterised the injuries as due to “physical punishment [that] was excessive”.
The panel felt it “could have been more detailed” in describing Megan’s injuries.
It also did not mention that Megan’s mother, Foo Li Ping, may have been a drug abuser and her boyfriend, Wong Shi Xiang, was a drug dealer.
This was something that the girl’s grandmother had previously mentioned in the presence of one of the community workers.
The panel believes this additional information would likely have prompted ECDA to refer the case to the Child Protective Service (CPS).
However, BSS explained to the panel that information on the possible drug involvement of Foo and Wong was not in the report, as it could not be verified.
Megan stopped attending preschool after 5 Sept 2019, with her grandmother telling her playgroup that she was staying with her mother.
This was a breach of the temporary care plan BSS instituted that required Megan to stay with her grandmother for her safety.
Concerned, BSS made two calls to CPS between 20 and 25 Sept 2019.
MSF initially could not find the two calls in its case management system, but later found the audio of one of the calls.
Source: Google Maps
The panel found that BSS provided limited information on Megan’s injuries, describing them as “a lot of bruises”, but CPS should have probed further to understand the risk level of the case, rather than just giving advice on what BSS should do.
Particularly, CPS should have asked more questions about the extent of the girl’s bruises and been more sensitive to what BSS said about Foo’s and Wong’s drug involvement.
Additionally, the call was not registered by the CPS officer — a breach of CPS’s established processes.
This meant that the call was not discussed further with the supervisor on duty.
MSF has started a disciplinary investigation into the actions of the CPS officer.
On 25 Sept 2019, BSS called and emailed HEART@Fei Yue (HFY), a Child Protection Specialist Centre, saying it “was looking for referral to triage”.
HFY replied that BSS “contact all the relevant parties to set up (a) meeting”.
When BSS expressed concern that if Foo or Wong were contacted, they would cut off all contact, HFY said it “could only take in this case if they (we) have the address of the natural mum, to locate Megan”.
Source: Google Maps
The panel felt that when contacted by BSS, HFY should have taken this as a referral to take the case, not a referral for triage.
However, HFY explained that “there was no evidence at that point to suggest that Megan was in imminent danger that required immediate intervention to ensure safety”.
“Hence, their advice was to locate the child and parent, and for more information to be gathered for further assessment,” the report said.
When BSS sought advice from CPS, HFY, and ECDA, CPS and ECDA said Megan’s grandmother should make a police report.
However, the grandmother was reluctant to make a police report as she was afraid it would create a further rift between her and Foo.
But the panel said that it is not necessary for a family member to make a police report — anyone who has information about a crime can make the police report.
In this case, BSS should have made the police report themselves, as by Oct 2019, Foo had ceased contact with them, Megan was missing, and multiple parties had emphasised the need for a police report to be made.
On 17 Jan 2020, Megan’s grandmother finally made a police report, accompanied by BSS.
The Investigating Officer (IO) assessed the matter to be a case of child discipline with low safety concern.
Source: Google Maps
The IO told the officer-in-charge (OC) of the duty team that she would follow up with contacting and tracing Foo.
The OC thus did not raise the report for discussion in the regular case review session the next day.
The IO failed to locate Foo and Megan for about two weeks and was subsequently deployed to Covid-19-related duties.
SPF reviewed the IO’s and OC’s actions and found that the IO should have surfaced the case to her supervisor when she was unable to contact Foo.
This would allow the OC to provide guidance to the IO and ensure the case was followed up appropriately, the report said, adding:
Had Megan’s case been followed up on appropriately in Jan 2020, the likelihood of Megan being located earlier would have been higher.
The panel felt that the failure of both the IO and the OC to follow established processes “prevented timely and appropriate action” after the police report was made.
Both officers have been disciplined for not following procedures.
One officer has since resigned, while her supervisor was given a financial penalty after both were investigated for neglect of duty, reported The Straits Times.
Megan died in Feb 2020, after Wong punched her in the stomach.
Her body was sealed for months at a unit in Suites @ Guillemard, a condo along Lim Ah Woo Road off Guillemard Road.
Source: Google Maps
In May 2020, Foo, Wong and their friend Nouvelle Chua Ruoshi burnt her body in a metal barrel.
Wong discarded the ashes into the sea off East Coast Park and disposed of the barrel in Tampines Link.
Neither the remains nor the barrel have been found.
Foo and Wong have been sentenced to 19 years’ jail and 30 years’ jail, respectively. Wong also received 17 strokes of the cane.
Source: @ccxxcxcx on Instagram and Lianhe Zaobao
MSF, in its statement, said CPS, ECDA, BSS, HFY and SPF accepted the panel’s findings and its conclusions in full.
The ministry also accepted the panel’s recommendations and pledged to study how to implement them, adding:
The tragic death of four-year-old Megan has saddened all of us. We are sorry for the outcome. We acknowledge that more should have been done when we handled the case. We will learn from this incident.
It resolved to “do better, to act sooner, and continue to work tirelessly” to ensure children are safe and protected.
To that end, it will continue to engage and work in close partnership with stakeholders “to further strengthen its (our) internal systems and to communicate across agencies”, it stated.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli said that while reading the report, he “could not but think” that “more should have been done at every stage”.
“This is a death that could and should have been prevented,” he maintained, adding:
Our resolve is absolute: We will do everything possible to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
Also read: 4-year-old girl abused to death & burnt in barrel was biological daughter of influencer Simonboy
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Featured image adapted from @simonboyyyyyyy on Instagram and Google Maps.