Man charged with murder of 5-year-old son
Video from The Straits Times/Asia News Network
SINGAPORE—A 41-year-old man was brought to court on Wednesday (Oct. 7) morning to be charged for the murder of his five-year-old son.
Philippe Graffart arrived in the State Courts in an unmarked police car just before 8.50 a.m.
Dressed in a black T-shirt and blue shorts, and escorted by police officers in the car, he looked dazed and tired.
The Belgian national was found with self-inflicted injuries outside Bukit Timah Neighbourhood Police Centre just past 5 a.m. on Tuesday.
Article continues after this advertisementAn hour later, police found his son, Keryan, dead in their 32nd-storey apartment in D’Leedon condominium located 2km away in Farrer Road.
Article continues after this advertisementKeryan is understood to have been strangled. Hand-shaped bruises were supposedly found all over his neck. Graffart was arrested for murder.
He is the head of the Singapore investment management arm of Nordea, a company that describes itself as the largest financial group in northern Europe.
It is believed that he had been fighting for custody of the boy with his former wife.
The Belgian Embassy, when contacted on Tuesday, declined to comment on the case.
Graffart’s Facebook page showed a father and son who shared a loving relationship.
A post dated Aug. 24 showed him taking his child to a fire station. He had posted then: “It is so good to finally see you, my son.”
A few days later, he put up a picture showing him embracing Keryan at the Canadian International School. The boy, dressed in his school uniform, was pictured beaming widely.
He wrote: “I am very proud of you Keryan, you are a big boy now.”
Another photograph and a video taken by Graffart show the boy celebrating his fifth birthday two weeks ago, playing with balloons and blowing out candles on his birthday cake.
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