After her employer scolded her, an Indonesian domestic worker punched the woman's two-year-old son.

She punched his head three times and hit it once with a wooden toilet brush.

Yesterday, Ayunda Lestari Dayuki, 24, was jailed for four months after admitting to ill-treating the child at a Bukit Batok flat by wilfully doing an act which caused unnecessary injury.

A district court heard that Ayunda started working for the family in September last year, helping with household chores and also taking care of the victim and two other children.

On Sept 21, her 36-year-old employer checked the closed-circuit television footage of the flat when she was at work. She caught Ayunda sleeping in the living room when she was supposed to be taking care of the boy. She then called the helper and scolded her .

The next day, her husband discovered a reddish mark and swelling on the back of the boy's head.

Investigations showed that on Sept 22, Ayunda hit the boy when he refused to bathe and started to cry. She punched the back of his head three times and used a toilet brush to hit it too.

A doctor's examination found a swelling on the back of his head.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kumaresan Gohulabalan said the victim was hit on a vulnerable part of his body. He said the offence was not easy to detect as Ayunda had committed it outside the view of the closed-circuit television camera. He asked for a sentence of at least three months' jail to be imposed.

When Ayunda urged District Judge Salina Ishak to impose a light sentence, the judge asked: "You are not even remorseful for what you have done?''

Ayunda replied through an Indonesian interpreter that she was remorseful for her "silly acts''.

Her sentence was backdated to Sept 26. She could have been fined up to $4,000 and/or jailed for up to four years.

Elena Chong