Domestic worker jailed 5 months for abusing elderly woman with dementia when she refused to sleep

SINGAPORE — A 38-year-old woman was hired to take care of an elderly woman suffering from dementia. But within a month, she grew frustrated with her work, especially when the 75-year-old refused to sleep.

So Eis Atikah, a domestic worker from Indonesia, would pinch Madam Fatimah Kassim out of exasperation, and inflict other forms of abuse on the vulnerable woman who never retaliated or complained.

Mdm Fatimah’s 32-year-old grandson, Mr Mohammad Farhan, discovered that his grandmother had been abused after Eis ran away from his home.

She was eventually caught, and was sentenced to five months’ jail on Thursday (Jan 9) after pleading guilty to one charge of voluntarily causing hurt.

The court heard that Mr Mohammad had hired Eis on May 12 last year to look after his household and to take care of his grandmother, who is now 76.

Then, on June 12, when Eis suddenly left his home without notice, Mr Mohammad had to clean up his grandmother the next day and noticed a bruise on her inner right forearm.

He asked his grandmother, who told him that it was a result of her knocking into something the month before.

Mr Mohammad found this suspicious because there were no such injuries when he checked the week before.

As he combed her hair, Mdm Fatimah complained that it was painful. It turned out that there was a bump on the left side of her head.

Mr Mohammad decided to send his grandmother to the Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, where she was warded until June 16. He also filed a police report against Eis.

While it was not stated how the police found Eis, their investigations revealed that the abuse she had inflicted on Mdm Fatimah occurred on several occasions during her month-long employment.

Eis told the investigators of the many times when Mdm Fatimah would not go to bed even though she was supposed to. Eis, who shared the bedroom with Mdm Fatimah, would be tired at this point, and would pinch her on both arms in frustration.

There were other occasions where Eis knocked Mdm Fatimah’s head a few times with her fist instead of pinching her.

A medical report stated that doctors found several small bruises on Mdm Fatimah’s forearms, left knee and her scalp. There were no scratch or nail marks, or active bleeding or penetrating injuries or broken skin, the doctors said.

For voluntarily causing hurt, Eis could have been jailed up to two years, or fined up to S$5,000, or both.

As Mdm Fatimah is considered a vulnerable adult, Eis was also liable to enhanced punishment, which could have seen the sentence imposed being one-and-a-half times the maximum punishment the court is otherwise entitled to impose.