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SINGAPORE – A nanny accused of poisoning two babies in her care was found guilty by the court on Thursday (October 15).
When 39-year-old Sa’adiah Jamari cared for a five-month-old baby girl for two months in 2016, her mother discovered that the baby returned from these sessions unusually sleepy and with puffy eyelids.
The parents of another 11-month-old girl discovered that their daughter had the same problems after being picked up from Sa’adiah during the same period.
When these two babies were brought to the hospital for evaluation, various medications were found in their system.
Sa’adiah had sought trial in February on two counts of poisoning the two babies.
Deputy Prosecutor Yan Jiakang said Sa’adiah, a nurse, had obtained the poisons through prescriptions, brought in by her doctor friend, or by buying them over the counter.
Sa’adiah offered independent childcare services in late 2016 and cared for the two girls. The five-month-old boy was treated by Sa’adiah eight times in November and December 2016, while the 11-month-old was treated on the night of December 25, 2016 and picked up the next morning.
The mothers of the victims testified in court that their babies were normal when they were dropped off at Sa’adiah’s home, but that the girls were sleepy when they were picked up.
After the last babysitting session on December 9, 2016, the mother of the five-month-old girl brought her daughter to Parkway East Hospital after noticing her unusual behavior. The baby was admitted until December 13, 2016, during which time doctors found her sleepy, flaccid and unable to follow objects.
The older baby’s parents picked her up on December 26, 2016 and sent her to the hospital after finding her sleepy and in a bad mood. She couldn’t sit upright, her eyelids were drooping, and she had difficulty walking.
The samples taken from the youngest and oldest babies contained 10 and eight substances respectively.
These included alprazolam, a sedative sleeping pill, and chlorpheniramine, an antihistamine that is used to treat allergies and can cause drowsiness, diazepam, and zolpidem. All were classified as poisons by the Health Sciences Authority.
Regular drug prescriptions
Sa’adiah received regular prescriptions for alprazolam, diazepam, and zolpidem in November and December 2016, as Everhealth Medical Center prescribed the medications for her at least once a week.
Evidence of the drug was also found in his home, including a bottle of milk with trace amounts of zolpidem, an empty pill of the same drug, and a pill filled with chlorpheniramine, given to him by his doctor friend for a runny nose.
All of the substances found on the victims were also found in Sa’adiah’s own blood or urine samples taken in September 2016, two to three months before the crimes.
During the course of her case, Sa’adiah had admitted that the only person who could have administered the poisons to the victims in her home was herself.
The prosecution described Sa’adiah as a liar whose testimony and defense were “riddled with contradictions and outright lies.” The nurse had often denied her familiarity with and access to drugs in an attempt to distance herself from drugs being administered to babies, but the evidence showed otherwise.
While admitting that he had lied about his prescription for alprazolam and diazepam in his defense documents, Sa’adiah belatedly attempted to offer an explanation for his lies by stating that he only knew diazepam by its brand name as he did not take it much, he stated. DPP. Yan.
“This is an obvious lie given that she had specifically referred to diazepam by its medical name in her presented defense (and that) she is a registered nurse who knows the importance of taking the correct medication,” the DPP said.
Additionally, Saadiah was prescribed diazepam “very often in 2016,” 52 times a year and five times a month from November to December 2016, the DPP noted.
When confronted with his diazepam prescription medical records, Sa’adiah changed his story to claim that he had taken diazepam from a general practitioner but not from a hospital.
While defending herself, Sa’adiah also tried to paint the victims’ parents as irresponsible, claiming that they picked up their daughters late, although she was the one who asked for them to be brought in later.
Sa’adiah will return to court on November 24 for sentencing.
Nanny on trial for alleged poisoning of 2 girls
