Babysitter imprisoned for poisoning babies gets more jail time for abusing her daughter

SINGAPORE: A babysitter and former nurse who is serving a prison term for poisoning two babies has received another four months' jail for abusing her daughter.

Sa'adiah Jamari, 41, is currently serving a seven-year jail term that was meted out to her in 2020.

She pleaded guilty on Wednesday (Dec 14) to one count of voluntarily causing hurt to a person she had a close relationship with, with another two charges taken into consideration.

The court heard that Sa'adiah has been physically and verbally abusive to her two daughters since they were about six years old.

After assaulting them, she would threaten to send them to a girls' home and make them homeless if they reported the assaults to the police.

Her daughters are now 20 and 21.

At the time of the offences, Sa'adiah was in a relationship with a locum or stand-in doctor, Dr Peter Looi Chong Heng. He provided Sa'adiah with financial assistance, including allowances and money for her monthly flat rental.

The younger daughter tried to report the abuse to her school counsellor, but matters escalated after the counsellor spoke to Sa'adiah.

Sa'adiah made empty promises that she would change and no longer be violent towards her daughters, but was unable to change due to her bad temper, court documents stated. 

She said she was violent towards her daughters because she loved them.

On Jun 5, 2021, when Sa'adiah was out on bail for her baby poisoning offences, she sent messages to Dr Looi asking for money.

He refused as he had just given her an allowance of S$500 for the week and was afraid she might use the cash to buy sleep medication that she was dependent on.

The pair argued on the phone. After that, Sa'adiah scolded her two daughters for being "useless" and threw items on the living room floor.

She later barged into the older daughter's room and snatched her phone as she was using it. The girl begged to have it back but Sa'adiah refused.

As the daughter was trying to get into Sa'adiah's room to take her phone, Sa'adiah closed the door on the girl's feet several times.

The younger daughter saw what happened and asked her sister to pack her things and leave to avoid making matters worse. 

However, before she could, Sa'adiah charged at the older daughter and pulled her hair. She also kicked the daughter's stomach and punched her multiple times while the daughter was squatting on the floor.

The younger daughter discreetly recorded a video of her mother assaulting her sister.

Sa'adiah then picked up a clothes hanger and began striking her older daughter with it. The hanger bent from the impact.

THE LAST STRAW

After seeing this, the younger sister thought it was the last straw.

She ran out of the house and called the police, running up to the fourth floor where she could still hear her sister scream. 

Sa'adiah took an eyebrow razor and cut her older daughter twice on her thigh. She also pointed a pair of scissors at her daughter, who snatched the weapon from her and threw it out of the window.

The police arrived and the older daughter was taken to hospital with bruises on her back and arm, a swollen arm, cuts on her knee and tenderness in her head and shoulder blade.

The prosecutor called for five to six months' jail for the offences. She said the assault was sustained and vicious, with a significant breach of trust as the accused was the victim's mother.

Sa'adiah had also committed the crimes while on bail for the previous offence of poisoning two babies in 2016 while she was babysitting them.

While Sa'adiah was suffering from major depressive disorder, the prosecutor asked for little mitigating weight to be placed on this.

According to a report from the Institute of Mental Health, she was found not to be depressed at her consultation in April 2021.

Her depression was more attributable to her previous offences concerning the babies. She had been irritable and worried about her court case, worrying about going to prison, and had insomnia.

Sa'adiah had claimed trial in 2020 for two charges of poisoning two babies - then five and 11 months old - with cocktails of drugs. She was found guilty in October 2020 and sentenced in December 2020 to seven years' jail.

She mounted an appeal but this was dismissed.