SINGAPORE – There was an incident in Ms Isabelle Lee’s childhood that scared her so much that she kept it a secret for years.

When she was seven, she was doing her homework when she realised that her four-year-old brother was not playing with his toys like she had thought. Emmanuel Lee, who has special needs, had taken some pearls from a broken necklace and crammed them into his mouth, making him gag and vomit.