SINGAPORE – A maid who punched her employer’s 86-year-old mother multiple times causing her to fall and fracture her thigh was sentenced to 13 months’ jail.

On Friday, Oo Win Kyi, 32, pleaded guilty to one charge of assaulting a person whom she knew to be vulnerable.

A charge that involved biting the elderly victim’s hand and hitting her hand with an abs roller on another occasion was taken into consideration during sentencing.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Jun Kai said the victim was bedridden and suffers from dementia. She also suffered a stroke in February 2022, which Oo knew about.

Oo, who lived at her employer’s residence in Sengkang, was hired to care for his mother and do household chores.

Investigations revealed that on Oct 19 at about 5.30pm, Oo sat the victim on the edge of her bed, so she could stand up to exercise, but the victim slowly slumped to the floor.

Oo pulled the victim up to place her back on the bed and threw four punches on the left side of the woman’s face, causing her to fall.

Her actions were caught on a closed-circuit television camera in the house.

Later that night, Oo’s employer took his mother to Sengkang General Hospital after Oo told him that the elderly woman’s left leg was swollen.

She was found to have suffered a distal femur – or thigh – fracture.

Her son reported the assault to the police the next day stating that he had a recording of his mother being abused.

The prosecution sought between 11 and 17 months’ jail, noting that the elderly woman is still hospitalised.

In meting out the sentence, District Judge Koo Zhi Xuan said: “In a case like this, the court has to make it absolutely clear how unacceptable acts of violence towards vulnerable victims are, especially when committed by the very person whose primary duty is to take care of them.”

The judge said that the victim, as an 86-year-old bedridden woman with dementia, may not be able to understand, let alone articulate the abuse towards her.

He said he was of the view that the sentence handed to Oo was appropriate given her culpability and the outrageous harm she inflicted on a wholly defenceless victim.