A Belgian man who admitted killing his five-year-old son in Singapore was spared from execution by hanging on Monday, after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide.

Image: File Photo

Philippe Graffart now faces up to 10 years in jail, a fine, caning, or any combination of the three penalties when he is sentenced on August 22.

The 42-year-old was originally charged with murder, a capital offence, but was found by a Singapore government psychiatrist to be suffering from a “major depressive disorder.”

Graffart’s son was found dead in his upmarket apartment in October 2015.

The former financial executive admitted giving the boy, named Keryan, a sedative then smothering him with a cushion.

Graffart was arrested when he turned up injured in a police station after deliberately crashing his car in a failed suicide attempt.

The father was believed to have been fighting for the boy’s custody with his estranged French wife at the time. The family moved to Singapore from Luxembourg in 2013, but the couple’s marriage broke down the following year and they are now undergoing divorce proceedings, court documents said. –AFP