AN INDONESIAN maid who was caught ill-treating her employer's baby son by closed-circuit television was jailed for nine months on Tuesday.

Etik, 25, pleaded guilty to pushing the 2 1/2-month-old in the groin, slapping his leg and groin, pulling his hands, pushing his head, shaking the sarong vigorously and kicking him on the buttock area at the employer's Paya Lebar house on Jan 25 last year.

The baby's father called the police on Jan 26 and reported that his maid had abused his son.

Etik had been employed since November 2007 to take care of the infant and do household chores.

Further investigation showed that on Jan 25 when the employer and his wife were viewing the CCTV recording, they saw Etik behaving roughly towards the victim. Etik was seen pushing the victim's groin and slapping his leg and groin area while he was lying and crying on the sofa.

She then pulled the baby towards her and put him in the sarong cradle. There she kicked on the sarong and used her leg to swing on the cradle.

She was seen placing her hand on the victim as if she was tapping or pushing the victim's head.

Sometime later, she was seen kicking the victim's buttock once and swinging the cradle vigorously.

The court heard that all her actions were likely to have caused unnecessary physical pain to the victim, who is now one.

She could have been fined up to $4,000 or jailed for up to four years or to both.