9-year-old male student laced water bottle of female classmate with Dettol hand soap

A nine-year-old male student poured Dettol liquid soap into a female student’s water bottle, in an attempt to “help” another female classmate, whom he is interested in, to get revenge over a trivial matter in school.
The victim, whose bottle was “poisoned”, went into a fever and vomited after drinking from the bottle. She was sent to the hospital soon after.
Laced drink from water bottle during break
According to the Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao on Friday (March 24), the incident took place in one Primary School situated in Jurong on Wednesday and all of the three Primary Three students are in the same school.
The victim and the other female student were originally good friends, but stopped talking and even changed seats due to a quarrel over a pencil.
To gain favour from the female student he is interested in, the male student decided to do something to the victim.
On Wednesday, the male student took the opportunity of recess to hurry back to the classroom to take a bottle of Dettol hand wash. He secretly poured Dettol into the water bottle of the victim.
When the victim finished her run and went back to the classroom, she drank from the bottle in a big gulp without realising that the water had been laced.
After around twenty minutes, the female student burst into a fever and vomited twice, with her whole body shivering.
The school immediately informed the victim’s parents to pick the female student from school to send her back home.
Not long after returning home, the family’s domestic worker discovered that there were many bubbles in the victim’s water bottle and a strong smell of Dettol when she was about to wash the bottle. She then informed the victim’s father.
Suspecting that his daugther had drank soap water, the father brought the victim back to the school, asking the school to give an account of the matter before bringing the victim to the hospital.
The doctor said that the victim’s digestive system will be over-sensitive and that she will be prone to vomiting, but she should be alright in the long term. However, the father was still worried.
Boy admitted to act and apologised at the hospital to the victim
According to the victim’s father, the male student confessed on the spot that he did lace the water bottle with the washing solution.
The victim told Lianhe Wanbao on her hospital bed that she had seen the boy smirking while she drank from the bottle. She also recalled an incident where the male student told her that he will poison her to death. She said that he was just joking, and never expected that he would really poison her.
The victim’s father told the newspaper that something needs to be done if a child can play a prank at this level. If today he can put Dettol, who knows what he will put next, said the father to the reporters.
Later that night, the male student visited the victim at the hospital, accompanied by his 27-year-old mother and a teacher. Both the male student and his mother expressed their apologies to the victim and her family.
The victim’s mother questioned the male student about whether he knew his action could have caused death.
The mother said that her daughter has developed a phobia against the boy and does not dare go to the same school as him. She said that the family hopes that he will transfer to another school so that her daugther can complete her studies without worries.
Boy’s mother: Son decided to poison girl at friend’s instruction
The male student’s mother said that her son decided to poison the girl at his friend’s instruction, as he did not have many friends in school and he was worried that the said female student will not befriend him anymore.
She also said that she is very saddened by the action of her son who wronged the victim and her family. She hopes that her son will be given a chance and that she will educate him properly, hoping that he will learn from his mistake.
A police report has been made and investigations are ongoing.
A member of the public stated that it was the domestic worker’s attention to detail that helped discover the seriousness of the matter before the girl’s condition got any worse.
Walter Loo wrote on Straits Time’s Facebook page, “The most important person in this episode of revenge-taking incident is the helper. Her attention to details, and the unusuals, really provided the advanced warning and helped the family get to the bottom of things quickly.”