SINGAPORE – A former pre-school teacher accused of ill-treating a 2-year-old girl has claimed in court that she did not understand the charge she is currently facing because of translation issues.
Although the prosecution and defence had agreed to a statement of facts that was read out on the first day of the trial, Mr Xu raised issues with the police investigation process on July 2. Senior Staff Sgt Chang said she did not rush Wu, and added that she had translated the charge to Wu in simple Mandarin.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Matthew Choo interjected when Mr Xu made this claim. He said that there was no evidence the child has special needs and questioned the relevance. Court documents show that Wu was employed as a Chinese teacher at the centre. On the day of the alleged incident, she was scheduled to teach a Nursery 1 class together with another teacher.