Babysitter who poisoned 2 babies gets 7 years in jail
She is appealing against her conviction and sentence, and is out on bail of $20,000
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Sa'adiah Jamari has been found guilty of poisoning two babies under her care with various medicines. Both girls survived.
ST FILE PHOTO
A babysitter who poisoned two babies under her care with an assortment of medicines, including some used to treat insomnia and anxiety disorders, was sentenced yesterday to seven years in jail.
District Judge John Ng had earlier convicted Sa'adiah Jamari of two counts of giving poisons to the babies, who both survived.
Sa'adiah, 39, who was a freelance nurse, committed the offences on separate occasions in November and December 2016 against the little girls, who are not related.
At the time of the offences, one of the girls was five months old, while the other was 11 months old.
The younger girl's 29-year-old mother had testified during the trial that in October 2016, she needed a babysitter for her baby and older daughter, who was then five years old.
Sa'adiah, a divorcee with two teenage children of her own, started taking care of the girls in early November that year.
After a few visits, the younger victim's mother noticed that her baby appeared "cranky".
She said that the fourth time or so this happened, in late November that year, she decided to take the child to KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH).
The court heard that a healthcare professional, after examining the baby, said she seemed "fine" and that no poisonous substances were found in the child.
The child's mother took her to Parkway East Hospital the following month when the girl's condition did not improve. The girl was warded for about five days and the mother received a hospital report listing multiple substances detected in the baby's body. They included the sleeping drug temazepam, antihistamine chlorpheniramine and alprazolam, which is used to treat anxiety disorders.
The other baby's mother, 22, also testified in court, telling Judge Ng that she had created a Facebook post in December 2016, stating that she needed somebody to look after her baby on Christmas evening.
Her boyfriend picked up the baby around 6am the next day, and the woman noticed that her daughter seemed "tired".
The baby was taken to KKH that day and admitted. A urine sample taken from the child was later found to contain substances that included alprazolam. She was discharged on Jan 1, 2017.
Sa'adiah is appealing against her conviction and sentence, and is out on bail of $20,000.
Her name can no longer be found on the list of healthcare professionals in Singapore.
