Maid gets four months’ jail for ill-treating employers’ children
A screengrab of the viral video by Christopher Sun, where Khaerun Nisa Selfitriya was abusing the toddler. Photo: Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE — In a case of what the prosecution described as an abuse of trust placed in her by those she worked for, an Indonesian maid has been sentenced to four months’ jail for ill-treating her employers’ children.
The actions of Khaerun Nisa Selfitriya, 28, came to light after her employer installed a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera that caught her kicking his toddler daughter to the ground. The video went viral after the father shared it on social media last year.
In court yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kenneth Kee, noting the “modern demographic of Singaporean households” where both parents are working and rely on domestic helpers for childcare, said the accused had “abused the trust” imposed on her with her actions.
On Oct 14 last year, Khaerun was looking after her employer’s daughter and son. She was feeding both children when the girl, then aged one year and nine months, refused to finish her food.
When Khaerun told her to finish her food, she started to vomit and cry. Khaerun then forcefully kicked the daughter’s left thigh area, causing her to fall and the right side of her head to hit the floor.
Investigations found that 10 minutes earlier, when the girl’s brother, then eight months old, started crying while Khaerun was feeding him, she shouted “No!” and slapped his back several times.
Both incidents were captured on the CCTV camera installed by Khaerun’s employer, who did so after he noticed scratch marks on his daughter’s arms in May last year.
Khaerun pleaded guilty to two charges of ill-treating the children under the Children and Young Persons Act.
DPP Kee told the court that when she was asked about her relationship with her employer and his wife, Khaerun stated that she was treated well. The family had brought her along for a holiday in China and she had said she was happy working for them, he added.
In pressing for a sentence of at least four months’ jail, DPP Kee said the victims were “defenceless, young toddlers” who, at their age, were unable to voice complaints to their parents.
In her mitigation plea, Khaerun’s lawyer Nasser Ismail pointed out that no actual injuries were sustained by the children as a result of the ill-treatment and that she had confessed to her irresponsible act from the outset.
The incident occurred on the “spur of the moment” and was neither pre-planned nor committed out of wickedness.
Mr Nasser also added that Khaerun, a mother of four herself, was “depressed, scared and confused” at the time of the offences as she had not had news from home since she started work in May and desperately missed her children.
She also reached “breaking point” that fateful day, he added.
For each of her offences, Khaerun could have been fined up to S$4,000 or jailed up to four years, or punished with both.
