SINGAPORE - A mother and her two daughters were sentenced to jail on Wednesday for a series of horrific abuses committed on a boy who was staying with them.

The trio pleaded guilty today to causing grievous hurt to the boy, now 10 years old, The Straits Times reported. The 46-year-old mother received a five-year jail term, while her daughters, aged 20 and 24, were jailed for 20 months each.

The elder daughter, who was convicted on another charge of cheating a cleaning firm of some $2,300, was jailed an additional two more months, ST said.

The youngest daughter, 14, who was also involved in abusing the boy, pleaded guilty on Dec 1. She is currently in remand at the Singapore Girls' Home, awaiting a probation report due on Jan 12 next year.

During the period between 2009 and June 2011, the boy was subject to a variety of abuses, including having his fingers cut with a pair of scissors, being burnt with a hot iron, and being beaten repeatedly.

On one occasion, he was scalded with hot oil for eating up all the food in the house.

During that episode, the mother asked her three daughters to hold the boy down while she used a ladle to pour hot oil on the boy's face and chest. She subsequently told her daughters to turn the boy over, so she could splash the hot oil on his back.

The series of abuses has left the boy with multiple burns and with scars which may cause permanent disfigurement.

The boy's abusers do not just include the woman and her three daughters.

The woman's 45-year-old husband allegedly splashed hot water on the boy. He is currently out on bail. His pre-trial conference is scheduled for Jan 20.

The boy is now in a welfare home and attending school, ST reported. The identity of his father is unknown, while his mother cannot be located.

As his birth was not registered, he does not have a birth certificate. He was first sent to live with his grandaunt after his mother was jailed when he was four.

The abuses began in 2009 and continued even after the family moved from Hougang to Rivervale in 2010, and then on to a rental flat in Ang Mo Kio.

The boy escaped from the home on June 18 and was found by a medical social worker two days later wandering outside the Ang Mo Kio - Thye Hua Kwan Hospital.

The court has imposed a gag order on naming the parties involved, to protect the boy's identity.

adrianl@sph.com.sg