In a fit of fury, the 22-year-old unemployed woman punched the girl and punished her by making her stand along the outside corridor of her flat.

An hour later, when she let the girl in and told her to take a bath, the girl said she did not have a towel.

The woman lost it again, this time biting the girl on her arm.

On Thursday, District Judge Roy Neighbour jailed the woman 18 months for child abuse and drug consumption.

She cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the girl.

The short-haired woman stood in the dock and was blase when her sentence was meted out.

In her leniency plea, the woman told the judge that she had been stressed as she was tasked to look after the girl, in addition to her own two young children.

She said that a friend is currently looking after her children. She has been in remand since Oct 10 and was seen rudely muttering something to a police officer who led her away.

According to court documents, the girl's 60-year-old stepfather left her in the woman's charge on Jun 6 as he needed to work during this period and could not take care of her.

The court heard that the girl's mother - who is also the accused's mother - is serving time in jail for drug offences.

The incident took place two weeks later while the girl was at home with the woman and her 29-year-old husband.

Her husband had also abused the girl that day by using a hammer to hit her thighs, the court heard.

It was only when the girl's stepfather took her home on Jun 20 that he noticed bruises on her face, hands and thighs. He later made a police report.

When the woman and her husband went to the Police Cantonment Complex a week later to give their statements, a police officer noticed that both of them had blood shot eyes and slurred when they spoke.

The couple was arrested and made to take urine tests which came up positive for morphine.

The woman's husband was sentenced to six years in jail and five strokes of the cane on Sept 24 after pleading guilty to child abuse and drug consumption.