A Myanmar domestic worker was jailed for four weeks on Friday for causing hurt to her employer's elderly mother who suffers from dementia.

Naw Toe Toe Mar, 26, had admitted to dragging Madam Loh Kin Soo around and then pushing the 77-year-old's head against the wall once, causing her to suffer injuries at the HDB flat in Teck Whye Avenue on May 16. She had also admitted to using her hand to hit the victim's head and back multiple times earlier that day.

A magistrate's court heard that the maid had worked for the employer for about a year and one of her duties was to look after the victim.

Since July last year, the employer, Ms Edwina Chan Ruth, 45, had noted several bruise marks all over her mother's body. When she asked the maid, she claimed she did not know how the victim was injured. Neither could the victim recall as she was in an advanced stage of dementia and could not recall past events that occurred even a few seconds ago.

Ms Chan then installed a video camera in her unit's living room. The CCTV footage captured some of the incidents of abuse.

District Judge Lim Keng Yeow said offences by foreign domestic maids against highly vulnerable and defenceless victims must receive the courts' most severe denunciation in the form of harsh sentences.

In sentencing, he took into account the maid's period of remand for some time or he would have imposed an even harsher sentence. The maid, who has a third charge taken into consideration, could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to $5,000 for each charge.