Singapore’s Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli on Thursday apologised and acknowledged that agencies involved in the case of four-year-old Megan Khung’s fatal abuse could have done more when handling the matter.
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“As the lead for the national child protection system, I would like to say that we are sorry for the outcome,” he said. “We cannot eradicate every risk of a child loss. But our resolve is absolute. We will do everything possible to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies.
“We will make sure that every link in our child protection ecosystem; every professional and agency; does its very best and more, to protect our vulnerable children,” he added.
Megan died in February 2020. She was abused for months by her mother Foo Li Ping and her then boyfriend Brian Wong, before the latter inflicted a fatal punch on the girl.
Foo was sentenced to 19 years’ jail for abusing her daughter and helping burn her corpse. Wong was jailed for 30 years and given 17 strokes of the cane for his role in Megan’s death, along with other drug crimes.
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Masagos’ comments came after a review panel released its findings on how Megan’s case was handled by agencies involved in the case.
The agencies were the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) child protective service (CPS); the Singapore Police Force (SPF); Beyond Social Services; Healthy Start Child Development Centre; the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and the HEART@Fei Yue child protection specialist centre.