Maid jailed for scratching baby's face to annoy employer
Unhappy over being scolded, a domestic helper forcefully scratched a 14-month-old baby boy with her fingernails just to annoy her employer with his cries, a court heard.
At the State Courts on Monday (8 April), Sri Rahmawati, a 24-year-old Indonesian, was jailed for 12 weeks after she pleaded guilty to causing hurt. One similar charge was taken into consideration for sentencing.
Rahmawati, a mother of one, started working for her employer’s family in November last year. The maid was tasked to take care of the baby and his twin sister, among other things.
On 10 November, Rahmawati was alone at home with the twins and their maternal grandmother. The maid checked that the grandmother was not looking before she brushed her fingers against the baby girl’s face forcefully before running back to her room.
When the baby started wailing the grandmother went out of the kitchen to coax her back to sleep.
About 25 minutes later, while the grandmother was in the kitchen again, Rahmawati went to scratch the baby boy’s face with her fingernails before running back to her room.
The baby started crying and the grandmother found scratch marks and some blood on his face.
The grandmother called the twins’ mother and the latter remotely viewed the footage recorded by a closed-circuit television camera in the house before lodging a police report.
“The accused admitted to scratching the victim’s face as she wanted the victim to cry and annoy the witness,” Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Jun Chong told Principal District Judge Ong Hian Sun.
Rahmawati was upset with the children’s grandmother for scolding her previously for not keeping the ironing board properly.
She was also unhappy that the twins’ mother had scolded her the day before the incident, when the maid’s family had called and asked to speak to her.
Rahmawati, who did not have a lawyer, only asked the judge via a translator to impose a light sentence.
For causing hurt, she could have been jailed for up to two years along with a fine of up to $5,000.
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