Parents jailed over fatal abuse of 8-month-old son
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 22 Oct 2026
Author: Selina Lum; Theresa Tan & Christine Tan
In sentencing the pair, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said: “Notwithstanding their youth and inexperience, the accused persons must be held fully accountable for their cruel acts.”
For nearly the entirety of his short life, eight-month-old Trevor Neo was smothered, shaken and hit by his parents, who found abusing him funny.
On Oct 21, in the High Court, the baby’s father, Neo Jia Ming, 27, was sentenced to 16 years’ jail.
Trevor’s mother, Chloe Gan Ci Xuan, 23, was sentenced to 15 years and three months’ jail.
The prosecution had sought at least 15 to 16 years’ jail for Neo, and at least 14 to 15 years’ jail for Gan.
The married couple had each pleaded guilty to three charges relating to Trevor’s abuse on Oct 12.
Gan faced a charge of causing Trevor’s death, while Neo was charged with allowing the death. They each faced one charge of ill-treating Trevor, and another for knowingly permitting the other to ill-treat the child.
Neo had an additional domestic abuse charge for assaulting Gan multiple times.
Trevor died after Gan smothered him, hit him in the face and turned him face down on the mattress to stop his cries on the night of Sept 1, 2024.
Neo, who was in the room playing a game on his mobile phone, did not stop her.
In sentencing the pair, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said: “Notwithstanding their youth and inexperience, the accused persons must be held fully accountable for their cruel acts.”
The judge said that contrary to the defence's argument that the two were overwhelmed by caring for the baby, Gan and Neo were well supported by family members and had a nanny.
“Yet, in an exchange of text messages on Jan 18, 2024, the couple, especially Mr Neo, made light of their physical abuse of Trevor and the potential detrimental consequences to Trevor. They continued with the abuse thereafter,” the judge said.
She noted that while it was ultimately Gan who committed the fatal acts, Neo, who was the older adult in the marriage, was aware of the significant risk posed to the baby.
“In Mr Neo’s completely self-centred way, he simply did not wish to be inconvenienced by having to care for Trevor. That night, he continued to play games on his mobile phone and offered no assistance to Ms Gan,” she said.
The judge added: “Not only did he fail to intervene when he had every opportunity to do so, he also encouraged Ms Gan to ‘wait for the baby to make noise first, then you try again’. His conduct was reprehensible.”
While Neo contended that his overall culpability was far lower than Gan’s, the judge said it is not a given that one who allows the death of a child is far less culpable than one who causes it.
Neo was the first to shake Trevor to stop him from crying, and the first to smother him. He also subjected Gan to abuse, the judge noted.
The judge compared the actions of Neo and Gan with those of the couple in the tragic case of four-year-old Megan Khung.
Megan’s mother Foo Li Ping was sentenced to 19 years’ jail, while Foo’s boyfriend Wong Shi Xiang was sentenced to 30 years’ jail and 17 strokes of the cane.
On Oct 21, Gan, who is petite and sports a bob haircut, exchanged a few words with her lawyer, Josephus Tan. She did not speak to or look at Neo.
She kept her head down and wiped her eyes periodically as Justice Hoo read her judgment, while Neo remained expressionless.
Her parents, Neo’s mother and his elder sister were in court. After the hearing, the family members were given permission to approach the dock, where the couple stood behind a transparent panel.
Gan’s mother reached her hand through a small gap in the panel to touch her daughter and spoke to her softly, as Gan nodded.
Parents shook baby to stop his cries
The court was told on Oct 12 that Gan moved out of her parents’ home to live with Neo in his Hougang flat after she found out she was pregnant in April 2023.
The couple married in August that year, and Trevor was born on Dec 9, 2023.
Following her discharge from hospital after giving birth, Gan stayed at her parents’ home and took care of Trevor with the help of a confinement nanny. Neo stayed there for two weeks.
In January 2024, the couple and Trevor moved back to Neo’s flat, where two of his uncles also lived.
The couple engaged a nanny to look after Trevor during the day on weekdays from February 2024, and other relatives helped care for the infant on weekends.
The couple frequently shook their son vigorously to stop his cries. They also abused Trevor by covering his mouth and nose to stop him from crying.
Gan hit the infant on numerous occasions out of frustration when he cried or did not fall asleep, resulting in bruises over his body.
Neo slapped Trevor, dug his fingers into his son’s mouth, and hit him. He also repeatedly pinched Trevor’s fingers to provoke a reaction from the baby, which he found funny.
The couple exchanged messages about the abuse and joked about how the shaking could cause brain damage.
Neo once covered Trevor’s nose and mouth with his hands for about a minute, until the baby vomited milk and turned purple.
After that incident, Neo told Gan he did not wish to take care of Trevor anymore because he was afraid he might kill him.
Neo continued to abuse Trevor in this manner every day for two weeks in April 2024.
Gan soon followed suit. Initially, she covered the infant’s face with a blanket to muffle his cries.
By May 2024, when Trevor could pull the blanket away, she put her hands over his nose and mouth and pressed down on his face to make him lose consciousness.
There were two instances where Trevor was taken to the hospital.
The first was when he was about 41 days old. Gan shook Trevor till he became unconscious, and he did not respond when she tried to feed him later.
He was hospitalised at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) for observation from Jan 18 to 23, 2024. No injuries were found on him.
In April 2024, Neo put his hand into Trevor’s mouth and dug around until the child bled under his tongue while on his way to the nanny’s home.
When the nanny asked what had happened, Neo lied that he did not know.
At the nanny’s insistence, Neo and Gan took the baby to KKH on April 2, 2024. A medical examination noted redness under his tongue.
Grandmother knew of abuse
In May 2024, four months before Trevor died, Gan’s mother noticed the bruises on Trevor’s body and warned her not to hit the baby any more. Gan did not heed the warning.
On one occasion in March that year, Neo slapped Trevor and bruised his face. He texted Gan to tell her that if people asked about the bruises, she should say he had accidentally dropped a phone on the baby’s face.
On Aug 2, 2024, Neo texted Gan, telling her not to hit Trevor at all until Tuesday to avoid leaving bruises, apparently because they were taking him to a doctor.
Neo also physically abused Gan between February and August 2024.
He punched her in the back multiple times at an arcade in Kallang Wave Mall because he was angry that she had played a game on her own, even though he had told her he wanted to play with her.
He also punched her in the stomach and thigh at a bus stop after she accidentally led them onto the wrong bus. The couple were going to pick Trevor up with luggage in tow, having returned to Singapore after a trip.
Another time, he punched her head more than 10 times after she used lukewarm water instead of hot water to make cereal. He was angry that she spent time thinking about how to throw the cereal away.
On the evening of Sept 1, 2024, Gan pulled a furry blanket over Trevor’s face and pressed down repeatedly to stop his crying.
While doing this, she asked Neo: “How? You want the baby to die?”
She also remarked: “If anything happens, we will go to jail.”
When Trevor started crying again, she covered his nose and mouth with both hands, one on top of the other, and pressed down hard. She then pounded her right hand, which was covering Trevor’s face, with her left fist.
She then flipped Trevor over face down and left him in that position before going to sleep.
At about 11.30pm, after Neo finished playing his mobile game, he noticed Trevor was not breathing and that his hands were cold. He woke Gan up and asked her to check on him.
After they failed to resuscitate the baby, Neo told Gan to book a taxi to KKH. He said he did not want to incur the cost of an ambulance when it was obvious to him that Trevor was dead.
On the way there, he told Gan not to say anything. He said if the police did not get involved, they could continue living their lives and not worry about money anymore.
Trevor was pronounced dead at KKH at about 12.20am on Sept 2. The couple were arrested after hospital staff lodged a police report.
An autopsy could not determine the definitive cause of death.
Baby abused to death by parents was not referred to child protection or social services: MSF
Trevor Neo, the eight-month-old baby who died after being abused by his parents, was not referred to the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s (MSF) Protective Service or any social service agency for abuse concerns before his death.
The infant had been admitted to the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) from Jan 18 to 23, 2024 for vomiting, drinking less milk and concerns about being shaken by his mother.
His parents had agreed to follow a care plan drawn up by the hospital after Trevor was discharged.
KKH’s medical board chairman Eileen Lew told The Straits Times on Oct 21 that the hospital had continued to follow up on Trevor’s case after his discharge, including facilitating access to services for parenting and child development support for his parents.
She added: “With no outstanding concerns, the case was eventually closed.”
Lew did not provide details of the care plan, or indicate how long KKH followed up with the case before closing it.
The MSF and Lew were responding to ST’s questions regarding Trevor’s case after his parents were sentenced on Oct 21.
Neo Jia Ming, 27, was sentenced to 16 years’ jail, while Chloe Gan Ci Xuan, 23, was sentenced to 15 years and three months’ jail.
For most of Trevor’s short life, he was hit, shaken or even had his mouth and nose covered by his parents. He eventually died in September 2024 after his mother smothered him, hit him in the face and turned him face down on the mattress to stop his cries.
The MSF told ST it appointed an independent review panel for Trevor’s case to identify lessons and recommend further improvements to the child protection system.
“The review highlighted the need for professionals to better recognise and respond to concerns involving infants and young children, and to coordinate support when families come into contact with different services,” she said.
These lessons have been shared across the social, healthcare and early childhood sectors, she added.
The MSF appointed the independent review panel even though Trevor died in 2024, before the ministry said in November 2025 that all child deaths known to social services would be independently reviewed.
The move came after the tragic death of Megan Khung, the four-year-old girl who was abused to death by her mother and her ex-partner.
In her case, there were multiple breaches across agencies, including a Protective Service officer who failed to log a call by Megan’s pre-school seeking help and police officers not following processes.
What happened in hospital
KKH’s Lew gave more details on what happened during Trevor’s two hospital visits before he died.
The first time was on Jan 18, 2024, when he was about a month old. That day, Gan had shaken the infant while Neo was at work, and went back to sleep after Trevor became unconscious.
Later, when Trevor did not respond as she tried to feed him, she exchanged text messages with Neo about the incident.
Neo then brought him to the KKH, which conducted “thorough evaluations” including a brain scan, eye examination and X-rays. The infant was found normal, with no injuries or reported loss of consciousness, said Lew, adding that his parents had agreed to follow the hospital’s care plans.
The second visit was on April 2, 2024. Sometime on or before this date, Neo had put his hand into Trevor’s mouth and dug around until the child bled under his tongue.
After the baby’s nanny noticed the injury and insisted that Trevor be seen by a doctor, Neo and Gan took him to KKH.
KKH’s Lew said the doctor who examined Trevor that day found he was well, with no tear or bleeding under the tongue. The infant was discharged on the same day.
Neo and Gan had mentioned that Trevor liked to suck on his hands and fingers, added Lew.
“His parents sought medical attention promptly, (were) cooperative, and provided accounts consistent with the clinical findings,” she added.
Five months later, on Sept 2, 2024, Trevor was brought to the hospital in an unresponsive state. He died, despite attempts to resuscitate him. Hospital staff lodged a police report and the couple were arrested.
Police told ST they did not receive any prior police report regarding Trevor before Sept 2, 2024.
Lew said paediatricians and medical social workers carefully evaluate children suspected of being abused. They may work with other specialists based on the child’s situation and injuries.
Cases in which clinical, social and behavioural indicators raise a reasonable concern of harm are referred to the MSF through the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline.
Where there are no child safety concerns, care arrangements and referrals to relevant community and social agencies may be made before discharge.
“The tragic loss of Trevor saddens all of us at KKH. It has fortified our resolve to further strengthen the care and support provided to the families,” said Lew.
The MSF spokesperson noted that Trevor’s parents had attended a marriage preparation programme from May to June 2023, before he was born. They were also offered parenting-related resources.
She said: “Trevor’s death was a tragedy. The primary responsibility for his abuse and death lies with his parents, who pleaded guilty and have been sentenced by the Court for their offences.
“Child protection professionals must often make difficult assessments based on incomplete and evolving information, including information provided by those caring for the child.”
While no child protection system can uncover each concealment or misrepresentation, or spot every case in time, the MSF spokesperson said this does not diminish the collective responsibility to learn from serious cases and continually strengthen how concerns are identified, shared and followed up.
The MSF has beefed up the child protection system after the review of Megan’s case in 2025. Among other changes, only agencies with the relevant expertise are allowed to manage child abuse cases from May 1, the MSF spokesperson pointed out.
These agencies include family service centres, child protection specialist centres and children’s homes. They are collectively known as child protection case management agencies.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
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