Cop's kind act uncovers heinous crime
A kind act by a cop led to the revelation of one man’s heinous crime.
It was in the wee hours on the morning of Oct 6, when Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Azri Aldrin Lim Teck Guan noticed a man trying to buy a drink from the vending machine outside the Bukit Timah Neighbourhood Police Centre.
The man, Philippe Marcel Guy Graffart, seemed disoriented.
ASP Lim also saw the needle of an intravenous drip attached to his right hand and what looked like a hospital identification tag on his left wrist.
He struck up a conversation, which led to Graffart’s confession.
“I have done something bad to my son... I have done something really bad to my son,” said Graffart, who revealed that his young son was in his Leedon Heights apartment.
Police later found the body of Keryan Gabriel Cedric Graffart, 5, lying motionless in the apartment’s master bedroom. He was pronounced dead at 6.17am.
In court on Monday (Aug 1), Graffart, 42, pleaded guilty to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The court heard that amid pressure from an ongoing custody battle with his French wife over Keryan, the Belgian expat had smothered his sleeping son with a cushion sometime between 9pm and 10.17pm on Oct 5.
The incident happened at Graffart’s 32nd-storey apartment at Leedon Heights.
After killing his son, Graffart cradled the boy in his arms and told the boy that he “was going to join him”.
Graffart then attempted suicide by speeding down the Marina Costal Expressway (MCE) and deliberately crashing into the tunnel wall.
He was taken to Singapore General Hospital with minor injuries, but left on his own.
After contemplating other forms of suicide, he later ended up at Bukit Timah NPC at about 4.30am where he met ASP Lim.
The court heard yesterday that on the afternoon of Oct 5, Graffart became distressed after being served an unexpected affidavit from his wife’s lawyer.
He was initially charged with murder.
Graffart was later diagnosed to be suffering from major depressive disorder and the murder charge was amended to a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Graffart faces a jail term of up to 10 years along with a fine and caning. He is expected to be sentenced on Aug 22.
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