SINGAPORE - A domestic worker was sentenced to 20 months’ jail on Monday for repeatedly abusing her employer’s three-year-old daughter and, on one occasion, using her fist to forcefully hit the toddler’s stomach.

The 39-year-old Indian national, who cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the victim’s identity, had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of ill-treating the child – offences under the Children and Young Persons Act.

District Judge Brenda Tan said children are vulnerable victims who are unable to protect themselves and, in this case, the accused had deliberately abused the child when she was simply drinking milk or trying to sleep.

The maid continued to abuse the girl even after her mother detected bruises and asked her about them, she added.

In her mitigation, the accused had said she was under a lot of stress at the time of the offences due to her personal circumstances and that the offences were out of character, Judge Tan noted.

“Even if we accept her reasoning, it is no excuse to vent her emotions on an innocent, defenceless child who she was entrusted to care for,” she said.

According to court documents, the maid claimed she committed the acts, including using “her left fist to hammer down on the victim’s stomach with force”, because she was agitated, annoyed and tired of working. 

She began working in the victim’s home in July 2020. In mid-2021, the child’s mother started noticing bruises on her daughter’s cheeks.

When the mother asked the maid about the bruises, she said she did not know how the child had got the bruises. Assuming her daughter might have got them during her playtime, the mother did not pursue the matter further.

In January 2022, the mother suspected her child could have been abused at her pre-school after noticing a bruise on her back. She lodged a complaint with its principal and also alerted the police.

After checking its closed-circuit television (CCTV) recordings, the pre-school management told the mother it could not find anything amiss concerning the toddler on its premises.

During this period, the mother noticed the maid appeared nervous. The accused also asked her how she should respond to police officers if she were to be investigated.

The mother became suspicious of the maid, and the truth emerged when she checked CCTV recordings from her home and saw the maid repeatedly abusing the daughter.

The maid’s acts of abuse included pinching the toddler’s chest multiple times and slapping her face.

On one occasion, the accused pinched the child’s torso three times. When the girl turned her body away, the maid grabbed her shirt and pulled her.

The mother confronted the maid on Jan 13, and she later came clean to the police about what she had done.