Married maid who abused toddler to spite boyfriend jailed

Upset with her boyfriend, a married maid sent him two videos of her abusing a 14-month-old boy under her care.

Leslie Ann Belmonte Dieza, a 35-year-old Philippine national, filmed herself suffocating the toddler with a pillow, grabbing and swinging him by his hair in one video. In the second video, Dieza is filmed smacking the child with the flat side of a knife. The child is heard screaming continuously in both videos, which were played in court.

On Friday (13 July), Dieza was jailed nine months after she pleaded guilty to two counts of ill-treating a child under the Children and Young Persons Act.

The incidents occurred on 11 April this year at a condominium in Thomson Road, where the maid had worked at the victim’s household for 16 months.

Dieza arrived in Singapore to work as a maid in 2016. After a four-month stint in another household, she was transferred to work for the victim’s family.

The maid was estranged from her husband, who was also working in Singapore, as she was having an affair with a man known as Raymond.

Prior to the incidents, Dieza was with the boy when Raymond made a Facebook video call to her. The two had a heated argument over money.

After the call ended, Dieza decided to film herself abusing the boy to show Raymond what she was capable of when she was angry, said Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) Dillon Kok.

While the boy was lying on a bed, Dieza placed her mobile phone with its camera angled at him before physically abusing him.

She pressed his face onto the mattress, smothered him with a pillow, and shook the boy with a pillow around his head. She then pulled and lifted him by his hair. She also shook and twisted his head by his hair before throwing his head against a pillow. The boy cried and screamed in pain throughout the ordeal, which was filmed in a video lasting one minute and 34 seconds, said APP Kok.

Around the same time, Dieza and the boy were seated on the kitchen floor when Leslie again angled her camera towards the boy. She then used a kitchen knife, grabbed the boy’s left hand and began hitting the boy on his buttocks with the broad side of the knife.

When the boy crawled closer to Dieza, she positioned him before her and continued hitting him. Her actions were caught in a 35-second video.

The maid sent the two videos to Raymond through Facebook messenger. Raymond later asked his sister to contact Dieza’s husband and the videos were forwarded to him.

The husband met Dieza near the condominium where they had an argument. He decided to call the police, stating that Dieza was not in the right state of mind to take care of a kid and that he was worried about losing his job.

Dieza was arrested the same night after she returned to the unit. The boy was brought to the hospital where he was found with abrasions and scabs on his body.

APP Kok said that although the harm caused to the boy was not high, Dieza was highly culpable in committing the offences. Her use of force arose from frustration as she had used the boy as “a tool” to spite her boyfriend and her actions were malicious, added the APP.

The prosecutor cited an Institute of Mental Health report that diagnosed the maid with adjustment disorder but noted that it had not impaired her daily functioning.

“Her adjustment disorder was brought about by relationship problems but still she should not have taken it out on the child,” said APP Kok.

Breaking down in court, Dieza apologised and asked for a second chance as her own children were being cared for by her mother-in-law.

Telling Dieza to compose herself, District Judge Jasvender Kaur said that the maid’s actions against the boy were dangerous and serious.

“He was so vulnerable he was in your care to be looked after…Fortunately the baby did not suffer any harm,” the judge said.