An Indonesian maid has been jailed for 12 weeks for abusing a 14-month-old toddler in a Punggol flat for nearly two months.
She reportedly abused the child because she could not get him to fall asleep, a district court heard yesterday (19 April 2016).
Tursinah Sari, 32, pleaded guilty to 6 out of 15 charges under the Children and Young Persons Act, after being caught on video committing the acts of abuse.
Footage from a closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) showed Tursinah physically abusing the child for nearly two months between Christmas of 2015 and February of 2016.
Tursinah can be seen holding the toddler upside down for seconds, followed by her slapping his face and pushing his head.
In other cases, she dropped the toddler on a sofa and then pressed on his ribs with both her hands. She also grabbed the toddler by his t-shirt and arm from the cot and jerked him several times. All of this because she could not get him to sleep.
Parents of the toddler made a police report almost immediately after watching the CCTV footage. The toddler was also taken to the hospital and thankfully, no injuries were reported.
"You must have understood the anguish of the parents when they discovered the abuse," Judge Luke Tan said, knowing that Tursinah herself was a mother. "The child is too young to express distress, protect himself and seek help."
Tursinah could have been fined $4,000 and jailed for four years per charge.
Source: The Straits Times