TAKING CARE of an infant is no joke as babies require 24 hour care which can leave most people caring for the tiny individual tired and frustrated. Looking after a baby requires the utmost patience and vigilance.
A maid in Singapore was recently sentenced to six months imprisonment for biting a baby she was caring for due to the infant not falling asleep, according to a report by CNA.
The victim’s identity was not revealed in the court documents to protect their identity, in compliance with the gag order issued by the court.
Indonesian woman Masita Khoridaturochmah, 33, started working for the victim’s mother since 2021 and her main responsibilities were taking care of the mother’s twin toddlers, aged one year and two months at the time, and handling household chores.
On May 26 2022 at around 5pm, Masita’s boss went to fetch her older daughter from pre-school while she was at home alone with the twin babies.
While looking after them, the Indonesian national tried to tuck them in to sleep but it turned out to be a frustrating experience as one of the babies refused to fall asleep after about 30 minutes of trying to get her to do so and she felt that the child’s refusal to sleep was delaying her cooking dinner.
At 6.30 pm, Masita then bit the baby once on her forearm which left a mark. When her employer came back home around 30 minutes later, she headed to the kitchen to prepare dinner for her family.
While preparing the victim for bed, Masita’s employer has noticed the bruise shaped like a bite mark on her forearm and that prompted the mother to suspect her maid to have bitten her child and inquired her about it to which Masita had denied initially but eventually admitted it.
Masita apologised to her owner while on her knees and the incident was reported to the police. In court, the prosecutor said she had abused her role as caretaker as the victim was in a vulnerable position, being so young.
He called out the maid for “willfully” causing the infant harm and dubbed the offence as “gratuitous”, bringing up the fact that she was simply frustrated due to the victim not falling asleep like she wanted, hence Masita had bitten the baby’s forearm to vent her frustration.
He added that the bruise was still visible the to doctors even on the next day. Meanwhile, defence lawyer Kyle Chong asked for two months imprisonment for Masita and the judge asked him to explain the low amount for her prison sentence and the lawyer said that it was a one-off incident which she regrets very much.
“The harm that was inflicted on the victim was a superficial injury. It was a bruise and there was nothing further beyond it,“ he told the court.
District Judge Tan Jen Tse then remarked that it was undisputed that these kinds of cases consider the general deterrence as the dominant sentencing.
“For non-fatal child abuse cases involving physical violence, the court imposed terms of at least six months. Since then, parliament has also seen fit to double the penalty for Children and Young Persons Act cases of this nature,“ he said.
He mentioned to the court that Masita had indeed bit the baby’s forearm out of frustration in a one-off abuse incident and showed remorse for her actions after that.
He then granted her request to defer her prison sentence for one week to straighten her affairs, including contacting her family back in Indonesia to settle her arrangements for her return after her imprisonment.
For Masita’s offence of inflicting physical pain on a child, she would have been imprisoned for up to eight years, fined up to S$8,000 or both.
